The Government is also believed to have decided to replace current CBI director Trinath Mishra with V K Raghavan, a Tamil Nadu cadre officer of the 1963 batch. Formal orders to this effect are likely to be issued in the next couple of days.

Khanna will succeed Bezbaruah under a Supreme Court directive that requires officers of the rank of Additional Secretary to head the Enforcement Directorate (ED). As per the Supreme Court ruling, appointments to the posts of ED and CBI Director have to be done by a three-member panel of the Central Vigilance Commissioner and the secretaries of Home and Personnel, and later approved by the Cabinet. This is Bezbaruah's second transfer from the ED. The Government had in August this year transferredBezbaruah, who was handling sensitive FERA violation cases, to his parent cadre (as Delhi's Transport Commissioner) but had to retract its orders after the Supreme Court questioned the Government's motives and the timing of the transfer. Sources said that Bezbaruah, a 1968 batch officer of the UT cadre, is likely to be shifted to some other post within the Department of Revenue.

Bezbaruah had only yesterday reportedly set up a Special Investigation Task Force within the Directorate under Deputy Director K N Sinha, who had also been given the charge of the Delhi Zonal Unit in place of Ashok Aggarwal. Bezbaruah and Aggarwal are believed to have been at loggerheads for some time.

Sources said that the decisions regarding fresh appointments to the ED and CBI were taken by the Government before Prime Minister A B Vajpayee's departure for Port Blair today. CBI director-designate, Raghavan, at present posted as Director General (Vigilance and Anti-corruption) in Tamil Nadu, is one of the senior-most policeofficers in the country. His predecessor Trinath Mishra, who belongs to the 1965 batch of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, served as acting CBI Director since January this year. He had been appointed acting director by the Gujral Government, following the Supreme Court's elaborate guidelines for the functioning of the Central Vigilance Commission, the CBI and ED.

Meanwhile, the Government today appointed former Managing Director of Indian Airlines, P C Sen, as Additional Secretary in the Urban Affairs Ministry in place of Hemendra Kumar, who stands transferred to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry as Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor.

The transfer of Kumar (a 1967 batch officer of Uttar Pradesh) is being viewed as part of a senior-level shake-up in the Urban Affairs Ministry, following the removal of Secretary Kiran Aggarwal last month. Kumar, along with other senior officers, had reportedly sided with Aggarwal in the clash between the bureaucracy and Jethmalani over several issues in theMinistry.

Kumar's replacement, P C Sen, was till recently the MD of Indian Airlines. A high-profile officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre (1967 batch), Sen was transferred from IA following the reconstitution of the boards of Air-India and Indian Airlines by the Government earlier this month.