There is  a sense of unease in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) over an embarrassing lie which raises questions about appointment at two top posts in the paramilitary outfits.

Vikram Srivastava, a 1973 batch UP-cadre IPS officer, has been appointed as the director general of the CRPF. Six months earlier, his elder brother Raman Srivastava, a Kerala-cadre IPS, was made director general of the BSF. The trouble is they are shown to be born in a gap of five months. Raman Srivastava's birthday is shown to be October 24,
1951 while that of his brother Vikram is March 18, 1952, in the official records. As per records Raman is elder to Vikram. In reality, Vikram is the elder one.

There were newspaper reports celebrating the success of the two brothers heading two paramilitary forces at the same time. Nobody in the home ministry checked the birth dates while releasing their bio-data. It is known to everyone that the Srivastavas are real brothers and have been shown to have been born five months apart, which is a biological impossibility.

Though the issue was once brought to the notice of department of personnel and the home ministry, both brothers got the clean chit from the government. Similarly, they have also been exonerated of any "wilful suppression of information to mislead the government" by the central administrative tribunal (CAT) and the High Court.

Though there is nothing illegal about their appointments as heads of the CPOs, the issue raises an ethical question about these positing. "How can BSF chief head the proceedings of court martial when he is not above board himself?" asked a senior government official. "The entire issue raises questions about the the principle that chiefs of paramilitary forces be above reproach. Interestingly, Raman was also implicated in the ISRO spy scandal and subsequently let off by the court.