 "IAS officer probing DDCA scam seeks transfer")
When the Delhi Assembly met last month to constitute an inquiry commission to probe the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) scam, several Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators called Chetan B Sanghi, principal secretary in the vigilance department, an “upright officer” being “intimidated” by the Centre. The AAP government alleged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre was victimising bureaucrats working for the Arvind Kejriwal administration.
Now, however, things have dramatically changed after the 1988-batch Indian Administrative Service officer wrote to the Union home ministry seeking a Central deputation claiming he - as the chief of the DDCA probe panel - was being “pressurised” to name “a certain VIP”.
The ongoing power tussle between the Centre and the Delhi government has had several IAS officers being caught in the cross fire. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had tweeted last month: “This is the truth of raids on Rajender Kumar and FIRs on Chetan Sanghi.”
People in the Delhi administration and the industry circles in the capital talk highly of the bureaucrat who has served several stints in the capital - right from Sahib Singh Verma to Sheila Dikshit - and now under Kejriwal.
Known as a “hard task master” and a “hardworking” officer, Sanghi is credited for re-jigging the industrial sector during his tenure as chairman and managing director of Delhi State Industrial And Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC) and as commissioner - industries. He was responsible for formulating the New Industrial policy 2010 during the Dikshit regime and re-development of industrial areas such as Naraina, Patparganj, Bawana.
Kejriwal is said to have specially asked for Sanghi from the Puducherry government, where the latter was serving as chief secretary. Notably, Sanghi in his letter to the Union home ministry said it was his inability to take up Central posting in the Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2015 that led to him being debarred from Central deputation for five years. Sanghi has now requested for waiver of the rule, “since it was of no fault of his”.
According to insiders, Sanghi must have re-calibrated his position, looking at the fate of principal secretary Rajender Kumar and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raids unleashed against him. The FIRs had already been lodged and Sanghi wanted “to step away” from the crossfire between Centre and the Delhi government. This led to his plea for Central deputation, sources say.
Sanghi had been booked for alleged irregularities at DSIIDC pertaining to the conversion of industrial plots from lease-hold to free-hold, during the time he headed it. He said in his letter to home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi that the ACB, headed by joint commissioner of police M K Meena, had not received the requisite information. “Now that it (ACB) has since received the requisite information from DSIIDC, it can easily close the investigation because there is no case that can be made out,” Sanghi said in the letter.
The BJP has been quick to gain political mileage out of Sanghi’s letter to the Union government, alleging AAP was gunning for Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and the Delhi government was putting pressure on Sanghi to target Jaitley.
Based on Sanghi’s findings of ‘irregularities’ in DDCA, the Delhi government had constituted a commission of inquiry under Gopal Subramanium to probe the DDCA scam during the 1999-2013 period, when Jaitley headed the cricket body.
Now, however, things have dramatically changed after the 1988-batch Indian Administrative Service officer wrote to the Union home ministry seeking a Central deputation claiming he - as the chief of the DDCA probe panel - was being “pressurised” to name “a certain VIP”.
The ongoing power tussle between the Centre and the Delhi government has had several IAS officers being caught in the cross fire. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had tweeted last month: “This is the truth of raids on Rajender Kumar and FIRs on Chetan Sanghi.”
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People close to Sanghi say when the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB), which reports to the Lt Governor, booked two FIRs under the Prevention of Corruption Act, it “demoralised” the “honest officer”, a blemish on his 27-year-long career. Sanghi has since gone on leave for three months (which ends on January 31).
People in the Delhi administration and the industry circles in the capital talk highly of the bureaucrat who has served several stints in the capital - right from Sahib Singh Verma to Sheila Dikshit - and now under Kejriwal.
Known as a “hard task master” and a “hardworking” officer, Sanghi is credited for re-jigging the industrial sector during his tenure as chairman and managing director of Delhi State Industrial And Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC) and as commissioner - industries. He was responsible for formulating the New Industrial policy 2010 during the Dikshit regime and re-development of industrial areas such as Naraina, Patparganj, Bawana.
Kejriwal is said to have specially asked for Sanghi from the Puducherry government, where the latter was serving as chief secretary. Notably, Sanghi in his letter to the Union home ministry said it was his inability to take up Central posting in the Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2015 that led to him being debarred from Central deputation for five years. Sanghi has now requested for waiver of the rule, “since it was of no fault of his”.
According to insiders, Sanghi must have re-calibrated his position, looking at the fate of principal secretary Rajender Kumar and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raids unleashed against him. The FIRs had already been lodged and Sanghi wanted “to step away” from the crossfire between Centre and the Delhi government. This led to his plea for Central deputation, sources say.
Sanghi had been booked for alleged irregularities at DSIIDC pertaining to the conversion of industrial plots from lease-hold to free-hold, during the time he headed it. He said in his letter to home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi that the ACB, headed by joint commissioner of police M K Meena, had not received the requisite information. “Now that it (ACB) has since received the requisite information from DSIIDC, it can easily close the investigation because there is no case that can be made out,” Sanghi said in the letter.
The BJP has been quick to gain political mileage out of Sanghi’s letter to the Union government, alleging AAP was gunning for Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and the Delhi government was putting pressure on Sanghi to target Jaitley.
Based on Sanghi’s findings of ‘irregularities’ in DDCA, the Delhi government had constituted a commission of inquiry under Gopal Subramanium to probe the DDCA scam during the 1999-2013 period, when Jaitley headed the cricket body.