WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama’s Indian American chief information officer Vivek Kundra, who was on leave because of an FBI investigation, has been reinstated.

White House officials confirmed to The New York Times that Kundra was reinstated on Tuesday.

The reinstatement comes a few days after F.B.I. agents had raided his former office at the District of Columbia’s technology department. Kundra was not a target of the raid. A former employee of his, Yusuf Acar, has been charged with bribery.

The F.B.I. said Kundra was not implicated in the bribery case, but he took a leave from his new federal job anyway.

The reinstatement comes as word was swirling around the Internet about an arrest of Kundra when he was 21 for a theft involving something of less than 300 dollars in value. Asked if Kundra had revealed the arrest during the White House vetting process, officials said they would not discuss the process but pointed out that the reinstatement should speak for itself.

It seems that Virginia’s Governor Tim Kaine, who is also chairman of the Democratic National Committee, had pleaded Kundra’s case to the White House to get him reinstated.

After the FBI raid on Kundra’s old office, the White House wanted to distance itself from him and placed him on leave.

Kundra felt his reputation had come under a cloud, and over the last few days, as his friends began to rally support for him, he called Governor Kaine, for whom he once worked.

It is not clear who Governor Kaine spoke with. (ANI)