The Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s principal secretary, Rajendra Kumar and four others, namely- Ashok Kumar, Sandeep Kumar, Tarun Sharma and Dinesh Gupta on corruption charges on Monday.
The accused are arrested in connection with a case of showing undue favours to a private company in award of government contracts worth over Rs 50 crore. Where Rajendra Kumar, a 1989 IAS officer is being considered as the kingpin of the entire scam, another accused arrested Tarun Sharma is the deputy secretary in Kejriwal’s office. They were called at the CBI headquarters this morning and were questioned for more than half of the day.
The CBI had registered a case against Kumar and others in December last year alleging that the officer had abused his official position by “favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders of Delhi government departments”.
This move by the CBI has triggered a war of words between the centre and the Aam Admi Party (AAP) with Manish Sisodia, the latter’s member and Delhi’s deputy chief minister saying, “The central government has stooped to a new low seeing the gains made by the Aam Aadmi Party in Goa, Punjab and other states,”
All five accused will be produced in Delhi’s Patiala House court on Tuesday. Rajender was known for his proximity with Arvind Kejriwal and was the centre of dispute between him and Lt. governor Najeeb Jung.
