Kejriwal’s Principal Secretary questioned by CBI

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar was questioned by the CBI on Wednesday in connection with a corruption case.

The IAS officer arrived at the CBI headquarters at around 9.40 a.m. for the second round of examination in connection with the case of alleged corruption registered against him and six others on December 14.

Mr. Kumar, a 1989-batch IAS officer of AGMUT cadre, was questioned by the CBI for about seven hours late last night after the probe agency sleuths raided his Delhi Secretariat office, triggering a political storm between the Delhi government and the Centre.

The CBI said that it has registered a case against Mr. Kumar and others on allegations against the officer that he abused his official position by “favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders from Delhi government departments.”

Mr. Kumar has been booked under 120-B of the IPC (criminal conspiracy), and 13(2), 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (Criminal conspiracy, criminal misconduct etc) for allegedly favouring a private company in five contracts worth Rs. 9.5 crore during 2007-14.

The CBI carried out searches at 14 places connected with Mr. Kumar in the national capital, including his residence, and various locations in Uttar Pradesh.

The agency has claimed to have recovered about Rs. 16 lakh, including Rs. 2.4 lakh in cash, foreign currency of the value of Rs. 3 lakh from his residence.

“The allegations against Kumar were raised by Ashish Joshi, former Member Secretary, Delhi Dialogue Commission,” the CBI said.