Vijay Shankar, who took over as the director of Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday evening, has said that he would not only try to give more powers to his investigating officers, but also make the organisation more transparent.

"It would be my endeavour to make CBI more transparent," he said while adding that he would plead with the government to give more powers to the investigating officers so they could carry out their work boldly.

• Vijay Shankar takes over as CBI chief

"CBI is an anti-corruption unit and we will not tolerate anyone within the organisation indulging in corruption. I can assure you that I will come down with heavy hand if we find that someone is involved in corrupt pratices. There is no room for dishonest officers in CBI," he declared.

He refused to react to the Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh's charge that Vijay Shankar's appointment is political in nature and that he has been asked to fix the Samajwadi Party and its leadership. "I have neither seen the statement nor heard about it. I would not like to say anything on the matter," he said.

Talking to a group of journalists, Shankar expressed his concern about the cut throat competition among the television news channels, which sometimes force them to put out stories that make no head or tail. One channel put out the story that Osama Bin Laden was one of the accused in a particular case. "I did not know that the CBI was looking for Osama. This is decidedly an area of concern," he added.