 "Kejriwal wants whistle-blower Sanjiv Chaturvedi as anti-graft team chief")
Delhi chief minister-elect Arvind Kejriwal wants Sanjiv Chaturvedi, former chief vigilance officer (CVO) at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), to head the Delhi anti-corruption bureau.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is expected to write to the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government to relieve Chaturvedi on deputation to the Delhi state government.
The move could be a point of confrontation between the AAP government in Delhi and the Modi-led government at the Centre. The Prime Minister’s Office will have the final say in deputing Chaturvedi, a Haryana Cadre forest service officer currently working in the health ministry on deputation.
“We would like him join the Delhi bureaucracy in some way. We’re working it out,” said a senior AAP leader, on condition of anonymity.
The NDA government had earlier brought Durga Shakti Nagpal to the Union government on deputation in relaxation of rules from her parent cadre in Uttar Pradesh. However, Chaturvedi’s case might be more difficult for the NDA government to deal with politically.
The NDA government had removed him as the CVO of AIIMS subsequent to J P Nadda, then only a member of Parliament from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), writing to the then health minister Harsh Vardhan demanding Chaturvedi be shunted out and all investigations into corruption at AIIMS be suspended and reviewed.
At that time, AAP had run a campaign in support of Chaturvedi but the officer was not reinstated. The government defended its decision to remove Chaturvedi on technical grounds and Nadda himself was appointed the Union health minister. The post of CVO in AIIMS continues to be held on an ad-hoc basis in circumvention of rules cited to remove Chaturvedi in the first place.
In his two-year stint as anti-graft officer at AIIMS, Chaturvedi had successfully completed more than 150 investigations in which officials were charged and penalised. He was conducting investigations in several other large corruption cases when he was moved out on the express orders of the Union health minister.
This was triggered after Nadda repeatedly wrote to the then health minister questioning the posting of Chaturvedi and demanded that he be repatriated back to his parent cadre while all the corruption cases, which included one senior official who had worked under Nadda in Himachal Pradesh state government, be suspended.
Before his tenure at AIIMS, Chaturvedi had also blown the lid off several scams in the forestry sector of Haryana state government under the Congress rule. In some of these scams, the United Progressive Alliance government had recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation probe against senior politicians and officials, including some in the office of the then chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. On four occasions, he was rescued from harassment by specific Presidential orders by the state government – a rarely used provision under the All India Service rules.
If Chaturvedi has to be deputed to the Delhi government, the Haryana government, now led by the BJP, will have to give a no-objection certificate. Besides, the final clearance will involve the PMO and the PM-headed Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.
By pitching Chaturvedi’s name for the post of chief of anti-corruption bureau, Kejriwal will also bring back to limelight the tussle over what powers the bureau holds. Unlike the Delhi Police, the bureau reports to the Delhi state government.
During Kejriwal’s earlier stint as chief minister, the bureau had registered a first information report against Reliance Industries (RIL), its chairman Mukesh Ambani, and former Congress ministers Murli Deora and M Veerappa Moily, in a case relating to gas from RIL’s find in the Krishna-Godavari basin.
At that time, under the Union home ministry rules, the Delhi anti corruption bureau was empowered to investigate cases of graft involving any individual, including central government officials, if the incident occurred within the territorial range of Delhi.
But after the NDA took over at the Centre, the wings of the bureau were clipped by the home ministry to limit the bureau’s powers to investigating officers and employees of only the Delhi government.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is expected to write to the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government to relieve Chaturvedi on deputation to the Delhi state government.
The move could be a point of confrontation between the AAP government in Delhi and the Modi-led government at the Centre. The Prime Minister’s Office will have the final say in deputing Chaturvedi, a Haryana Cadre forest service officer currently working in the health ministry on deputation.
“We would like him join the Delhi bureaucracy in some way. We’re working it out,” said a senior AAP leader, on condition of anonymity.
The NDA government had earlier brought Durga Shakti Nagpal to the Union government on deputation in relaxation of rules from her parent cadre in Uttar Pradesh. However, Chaturvedi’s case might be more difficult for the NDA government to deal with politically.
The NDA government had removed him as the CVO of AIIMS subsequent to J P Nadda, then only a member of Parliament from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), writing to the then health minister Harsh Vardhan demanding Chaturvedi be shunted out and all investigations into corruption at AIIMS be suspended and reviewed.
At that time, AAP had run a campaign in support of Chaturvedi but the officer was not reinstated. The government defended its decision to remove Chaturvedi on technical grounds and Nadda himself was appointed the Union health minister. The post of CVO in AIIMS continues to be held on an ad-hoc basis in circumvention of rules cited to remove Chaturvedi in the first place.
In his two-year stint as anti-graft officer at AIIMS, Chaturvedi had successfully completed more than 150 investigations in which officials were charged and penalised. He was conducting investigations in several other large corruption cases when he was moved out on the express orders of the Union health minister.
This was triggered after Nadda repeatedly wrote to the then health minister questioning the posting of Chaturvedi and demanded that he be repatriated back to his parent cadre while all the corruption cases, which included one senior official who had worked under Nadda in Himachal Pradesh state government, be suspended.
Before his tenure at AIIMS, Chaturvedi had also blown the lid off several scams in the forestry sector of Haryana state government under the Congress rule. In some of these scams, the United Progressive Alliance government had recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation probe against senior politicians and officials, including some in the office of the then chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. On four occasions, he was rescued from harassment by specific Presidential orders by the state government – a rarely used provision under the All India Service rules.
If Chaturvedi has to be deputed to the Delhi government, the Haryana government, now led by the BJP, will have to give a no-objection certificate. Besides, the final clearance will involve the PMO and the PM-headed Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.
By pitching Chaturvedi’s name for the post of chief of anti-corruption bureau, Kejriwal will also bring back to limelight the tussle over what powers the bureau holds. Unlike the Delhi Police, the bureau reports to the Delhi state government.
During Kejriwal’s earlier stint as chief minister, the bureau had registered a first information report against Reliance Industries (RIL), its chairman Mukesh Ambani, and former Congress ministers Murli Deora and M Veerappa Moily, in a case relating to gas from RIL’s find in the Krishna-Godavari basin.
At that time, under the Union home ministry rules, the Delhi anti corruption bureau was empowered to investigate cases of graft involving any individual, including central government officials, if the incident occurred within the territorial range of Delhi.
But after the NDA took over at the Centre, the wings of the bureau were clipped by the home ministry to limit the bureau’s powers to investigating officers and employees of only the Delhi government.