According to sources close to government, Chaturvedi, who is said to be close to Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi, is considered a favourite of influential bureaucrats in Delhi.
Ashok Chaturvedi, a native of Uttar Pradesh, is an Indian Police Service officer of the 1970 batch and Madhya Pradesh cadre. His father, a police officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre, knew RAW's legendary founder Rameshwar Nath Kao quite well.
Kao inducted Ashok Chaturvedi into RAW. He served in the United Kingdom in the 1980s and in Canada in the 1990s. He also served in Jammu and Kashmir.
In New Delhi, Chaturvedi has handled many assignments including the Bangladesh analysis section. He resigned from the IPS in the 1980s and was absorbed in the Research and Analysis Service, RAW's special cadre of officers.
He faced a setback when Brajesh Mishra, then National Security Advisor, promoted Amber Sen to Special Secretary, RAW, superseding Chaturvedi. Sen is an officer of the 1970 IPS batch and Rajasthan cadre.
When C D Sahay retired as RAW chief in 2005, the government brought P K Hormis Tharakan, then Kerala's director general of police, as Secretary, RAW, instead of selecting someone from the organisation as the agency's chief.
When the United Progressive Alliance came to power, Chaturvedi, the sources said, petitioned the government that he had been 'victimised' by the National Democratic Alliance government. His plea was accepted and he too was appointed Special Secretary, the number two post in RAW.
