Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal has directed the Delhi government’s vigilance department to take action “as per rules” in relation to a plea seeking the prosecution of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in an alleged scam pertaining to the Public Works Department (PWD).
Terming it a bid to sully the “honest image” of the Chief Minister, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) accused Mr. Baijal of misusing his official post by acting as “an agent” of the BJP. Party sources said the move seemed to be following a predetermined course to name Mr. Kejriwal as an accused in the scam.
Under investigation
The Anti-Corruption Branch had recently lodged, and is currently investigating, three separate cases filed in relation to the said scam alleging irregularities in the grant of contracts for roads and sewer lines in the capital in 2015-16, on the basis of a complaint filed by Rahul Sharma, the founder of an NGO called the Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO). One of the FIRs has been registered against the company of Mr. Kejriwal’s now deceased brother-in-law Surender Kumar Bansal. Mr. Kejriwal, however, has not been named as an accused in any of the three cases.
On June 7, Mr. Sharma had filed an application at Raj Niwas seeking prosecution sanction pertaining to the three FIRs against Mr. Kejriwal and the executive engineer of the PWD.
