New Delhi, Dec. 15: Twenty CBI officers in plain clothes landed at the Delhi secretariat this morning and headed straight to the third-floor office of Rajendra Kumar, principal secretary to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
It was around 9.10 and still foggy.
Armed with a search warrant from a court, the sleuths - who didn't wear the "CBI"-inscribed jacket search teams normally wear during a raid - bolted from inside the door of Kumar's office, next door to Kejriwal's.
Kejriwal, who normally reaches office between 10am and 10.30am, stayed away today and later took to Twitter to target the Narendra Modi government.
Another team of 12 CBI sleuths had reached Kumar's plush apartment in Friends Colony while he was getting ready to leave for office. Kumar was questioned through the day and taken to the agency's Lodhi Road headquarters in the evening before he was allowed to leave around 10.30pm. CBI sources said he could be quizzed again if required.
CBI spokesperson Devpreet Singh said the raids followed a complaint by bureaucrat Ashish Joshi in June this year that Kumar, a 1989-batch IAS officer, had abused his official position by favouring a private company, M/S Endeavours Systems, through contracts worth Rs 9.42 crore since 2007.
Joshi had recently been removed as member secretary of the AAP's Delhi Dialogue Commission, a government body that acts as an interface with different arms of the administration.
"After receiving the complaint we did a verification for four months before registering an FIR against Kumar yesterday. He has been charged with criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct and several other sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act," the spokesperson said.
The agency has also booked some other persons: A.K. Duggal, then director of public sector IT company ICSIL; G.K. Nanda, then MD ICSIL; R.S. Kaushik, the current MD; and Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Kumar Gupta, both directors of Endeavours Systems.
"While serving as director, school education, he came close to Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Gupta during 2002-2005. He allegedly facilitated award of contracts worth Rs 9.5 crore to Endeavours through ICSIL during 2007-14," said a CBI official.
Neither Kumar nor any of the others named in the FIR could be reached for comment.
The charges
• As chairman of transmission utility Transco Limited in 2009, Kumar had allegedly facilitated contracts worth Rs 40.16 lakh to Endeavours without inviting tenders.
• As secretary, health and family welfare, allegedly facilitated award of a project worth Rs 2.43 crore to the same company without tenders in November 2010 through the ICSIL.
• As commissioner, trade and taxes, now VAT, allegedly facilitated award of a project worth Rs 3.66 crore in May 2011-12 to Endeavours through ICSIL. Although a bidding process was conducted it was allegedly tailor-made for Endeavours.
• As secretary, information technology, Delhi government, allegedly awarded a project worth Rs 45.50 lakh to Endeavours in July 2013, again through the ICSIL.
• As secretary to the chief minister, ensured an alleged award of project of the Delhi Jal Board worth Rs 2.46 crore to Endeavours in June 2014. Although work was awarded through tenders, eligibility criteria were alleged to have favoured the private company.
In June 2014, Delhi was under central rule and headed by lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung. The CBI, however, claims the deal was inked in February 2014, when the Kejriwal government was in office.
The agency conducted raids at 14 places in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, including Kumar's office and Delhi residence. "We seized papers of three immovable properties, foreign currency worth Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2.3 lakh in cash from Kumar's residence... while Rs 10.5 lakh in cash was recovered from G.K. Nanda's residence," CBI spokesperson Singh said.
