Senior IPS officer Praveen Sood took over as the new CBI director on Thursday and he will be in the post for two years, officials said.

On his last working day, the outgoing director, Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, handed Sood the charge of the agency at its headquarters here, they said.

Sood is a 1986-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Karnataka cadre and was the state's director general of police, officials said. He is the senior-most IPS officer in the country after Jaiswal.

Sood's name was cleared in a meeting of a high-powered committee comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

Chowdhury, a Congress leader, had reportedly given a dissent note on the selection of Sood as the next CBI director In an order, the Department of Personnel and Training had said, "Approval of the competent authority is hereby conveyed to the appointment of Praveen Sood, IPS (KN:86) as Director, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a period of two years from the date of assumption of charge of the office vice Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, IPS (MH:85) consequent upon completion of his tenure."

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