New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s nephew Vinay Bansal was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) on Thursday for his involvement in an alleged ₹4 crore scam related to the construction of a drainage network in northwest Delhi awarded to his firm by the Public Works Department (PWD) three years ago.
More arrests, ACB sources claimed, including those of serving Delhi government officials, were in the offing. Mr. Bansal, who according to the ACB owns 50% stake in M/s Renu Construction Company along with his late father Surender Bansal, was picked up from his home in northwest Delhi’s Pitampura area at 4 a.m.
“The decision to arrest him was made on the basis of the CPWD report received by us recently,” a senior official from the ACB, who asked not to be named, said when asked about the timing of the arrest, considering that the FIRs had been registered a year ago.
The FIRs were registered on the basis of a complaint by Rahul Sharma, founder of NGO Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO), who alleged irregularities in the grant of contracts for roads and sewer lines in 2015-16.
Mr. Bansal was sent to a day’s judicial custody by a city court, where he fainted and had to be hospitalised, according to the ACB official. He was was arrested on the basis of an assessment report putting his firm in the dock “on several counts” in relation to the quality of construction material used, financial irregularities and overlooking of procedural penalties as per the CPWD in the construction of a drain located in Bakoli village, northwest Delhi.
“He (Mr. Bansal) had joined ongoing investigation at least three to four times over the last year claiming he was a dormant partner (in the construction company). But he could not satisfactorily answer questions about his evidently active involvement in it when confronted with paper work and communications between him and PWD officials engaged in the project. More arrests will follow,” said the official
The company, according to an ACB source, started work on March 17, 2015 and was required to complete it by July 14, 2015 with the provision of penalty of ₹20,000 being levied per month for the delay. Among other irregularities, the source said, the ACB found that even though the construction work was completed only on November 23, 2015, no penalty was levied.
Mr. Bansal’s father, late Surender Bansal, was the husband of Mr. Kejriwal’s wife Sunita’s sister. He died soon after the filing of an FIR against his company by the ACB in May last year.
