Uma Shankar Misra, who took over on Saturday as the new director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, has said tackling corruption and extradition of criminals are going to be his top priorities.

Taking over from P C Sharma, who retired after nearly two decades with the CBI, Misra said: "The foundation stone for these [priorities] has been laid by my predecessor and I will continue to strive in that direction."

Misra is a 1968 batch, Orissa cadre IPS officer.

"I want to mount vigilance on corrupt officers who continue to thrive. We should strive to create awareness amongst the people. A thief is thief when he gets caught. Our effort would be to expose those who do not get caught. Unfortunately, some political cases take the limelight. We are essentially an anti-corruption agency," he said.

On extradition cases pending in various countries, Misra said: "We have to route our request through the Ministry of External Affairs, which in turn forwards it to its counterpart in the concerned country. Then it all depends upon whether or not we have an extradition treaty with that nation," he said.

He said the CBI should have more powers to register cases suo moto. "CBI should have powers similar to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in America. If state governments do not give permission to proceed in some cases, we can do nothing about them. There was a time when N T Ramarao refused to give permission to us to follow certain cases and our senior officers sat in their offices but had no work," Misra said.

Asked about his opinion about the formation of a federal investigation agency, he said the Malimath Committee on reforms in criminal justice system had made such a proposal and it is under the government's active consideration.

Misra refused to comment on the CVC Bill, which prohibits the agency from arresting anyone above the rank of joint secretary.

He lauded the work done by some junior officers in Vishakhapatanam, where a senior CBI officer was caught under the Prevention of Corruption Act. "Once we knew that there was a case against him, we did not hesitate to arrest him and cleanse our organisation," he said.

Sharma said he leaves the office contended. "I had an eventful stay as the head of CBI," he said.

Sharma was instrumental in securing the extradition of a number of terrorists/criminals from Dubai.

With PTI inputs