 "Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal with Dy CM Manish Sisodia speak to the media after meeting Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu over Shakur Basti demolition drive, at Rail Bawan in New Delhi")
The Union government on Tuesday unwittingly pushed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal into the open arms of the Opposition when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a corruption case against the principal secretary of the Delhi government and raided his office.
The raid revived a war of words between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and the Centre, and also brought several Opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress and the Left parties, to Kejriwal’s support.
Kejriwal, who had upped the ante against the Centre in the last couple of days over the demolition of a slum by railway authorities in Delhi, alleged in the afternoon that the CBI also raided chief minister’s office.
Kejriwal, who in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections contested against Modi from the Varanasi seat, said on Twitter: “Modi is a coward and a psychopath” and followed it up with another: “Which file was CBI looking for in my office? DDCA (Delhi District Cricket Association) files in which (Finance Minister) Arun Jaitley is in dock. I was about to order a commission of inquiry,” he alleged. The Delhi CM said: “When Modi couldn’t handle me politically, he resorts to this cowardice.”
His tweets got a sympathetic response from Opposition parties. “Sealing of a chief minister’s office is unprecedented. I am shocked,” West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee tweeted. “Mamata di this is undeclared emergency,” Kejriwal replied. The issue also rocked the Rajya Sabha. Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and Trinamool’s Derek O’Brien slammed the government move.
Privately, senior leaders within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also felt that the “timing” of the CBI raid was inopportune. They said the raid shouldn’t have been conducted when Parliament is in session, but insisted that the CBI, unlike the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government years, was no longer a “caged parrot” instructed by its political masters. Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad slammed Kejriwal for his “disgraceful” remarks against the PM, that it was shameful for a CM who had come from the “womb of” anti-corruption stir should protect an officer involved in corruption. Prasad demanded an apology from Kejriwal for his comments against the PM.
The CBI, however, termed reports on search at the office of the Delhi chief minister “baseless”. Denying that it searched the CM’s office, CBI said, “False propaganda should not be used to impede our investigation.”
In the Rajya Sabha, Jaitley also denied that the CM’s office was raided. Another senior minister found it curious that Kejriwal was upset about the investigation when the case related to the years when Congress’ Sheila Dikshit was the Delhi CM.
The CBI registered a case against bureaucrat Rajendra Kumar, a 1989-batch Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer, and six others on the allegations that during the period 2007-14, he along with others abused his official position in awarding contracts from the Delhi government to a private firm. Searches were conducted at 14 locations on Tuesday in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh after warrants were obtained from competent authorities, CBI said.
Apart from Kumar, other names in the FIR are A K Duggal, the then managing director, Intelligent Communication System India Ltd or ICSIL; G K Nanda, the then MD, ICSIL; R S Kaushik, MD, ICSIL; Sandeep Kumar, director, Endeavour Systems; Dinesh Kumar Gupta, director, Endeavour Systems; Endeavour Systems; and other unknown persons.
According to CBI sources, Kumar was not cooperating and not divulging email passwords. His arrest was not ruled out. During the searches, papers of three immovable properties along with cash of Rs 2.4 lakh were recovered from Kumar’s residence. Foreign currency worth over Rs 3 lakh was also recovered from his house. Another Rs 10.5 lakh was recovered from co-accused G K Nanda.
Kumar is learnt to have set up many companies to award work orders without going through the process of tendering during his stint as director of education, secretary (IT), secretary (health) and commissioner (VAT), allegedly resulting in financial loss to the Delhi government.
Kumar, who studied in IIT-Delhi, reportedly formed a company called Endeavors Systems Private Ltd along with some others. In 2007, when he became secretary (IT) in Delhi government, he got the company empanelled with Intelligent Communication Systems India Ltd (ICSIL), a public sector unit.
Investigation against Kumar was initiated after Ashish Joshi, former member-secretary of the Delhi Dialogue Commission, sought a probe into “corrupt practices” by the official.
