A Central Bureau of Investigation raid on the secretariat of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday morning triggered a political storm, with a united opposition accusing the Narendra Modi government of political vendetta using the CBI. Following the raid, the Delhi CM was locked out of his office for the day.
The CBI and the Centre dismissed the allegations.
“Reports from certain quarters regarding search at the office of Chief Minister, Delhi, are baseless. CBI emphatically denies having searched the office of CM, Delhi. False propaganda should not be used to impede our investigation,” the CBI spokesperson said in a statement.
According to indications emerging from the CBI, the agency may seek custodial interrogation of the accused IAS official Rajender Kumar.
‘Not cooperating’ “He has not been cooperating in the investigations. The official has not provided us access to his email accounts,” said a CBI official.
The case has been registered under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 13(2) (criminal misconduct) read with Section 13(1)(d) (abuse of official position) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Mr. Kumar, a 1989-batch IAS official and Principal Secretary to the Delhi Chief Minister, has been named an accused.
Among the other accused are Endeavour Systems Private Limited and its two directors Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Kumar Gupta, besides A.K. Duggal and G.K. Nanda, former managing directors of public sector unit Intelligent Communication System India Limited (ICSIL) and its incumbent managing director R.S. Kaushik. ICSIL is a joint venture between the Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd and the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation.
Raids follow five-month investigation, says CBI
The high drama in Delhi started around 9 a.m. on Tuesday when CBI teams swooped down upon 14 places, including the official and residential premises of the Delhi Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary Rajender Kumar and the other six accused named in the corruption case.
The CBI said the case was registered on Monday as a result of a five-month-long probe into a complaint by former Delhi Dialogue Commission member secretary Ashish Joshi.
In April, the Kejriwal government had asked Mr. Joshi to relinquish the post, following which orders for his repatriation to the Central government were issued.
In July, Mr. Joshi had lodged a complaint with Delhi’s Anti-Corruption Branch which transferred it to the CBI on his request. The complaint related to several Delhi government work contracts awarded to Endeavour Systems, mostly through ICSIL, allegedly without following set rules.
The agency sources alleged that while working in various capacities from 2007 to 2014, the IAS official favoured the accused company bag contracts worth about Rs. 9.5 crore. During the morning searches, the agency seized papers regarding three immovable properties along with Rs.2.3 lakh in cash and foreign currency worth about Rs.3 lakh from Mr. Kumar’s premises. The CBI also seized Rs.10.5 lakh in cash from co-accused G. K. Nanda.
