CBI backs raids, grills Delhi CM principal secretary

A day after conducting searches in Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s office building, the CBI on Wednesday justified the action and said the list of all the documents seized by it will be placed before the court. The agency also continued questioning Mr Kejriwal’s principal secretary Rajendra Kumar in a corruption case.

The agency categorically denied the charges that it had snooped on any files not related to probe against Mr Kumar. Meanwhile, the CBI is preparing to file a disproportionate assets case against Mr Kumar, a 1989 batch IAS officer of the AGMU cadre, for allegedly amassing assets worth several crores that are disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The CBI’s action on Tuesday evoked sharp reactions from Mr Kejriwal who accused the agency of searching files “unrelated” to the probe his principal secretary and claimed that a file relating to DDCA was scrutinised by it. Talking to reporters, CBI spokesperson Devpreet Singh said, “The CBI seizures, during the searches at all 14 places, were in the presence of independent witnesses, as per the procedures laid down by the law. The search-cum-seizure memo containing details of all seized items will be produced before the competent court.”

The spokesperson added that blatantly incorrect information is being spread by certain quarters since Tuesday to discredit the agency with the intent to obstruct its investigation. The CBI neither prevented nor disallowed any person in their movement to the various offices in the Delhi Secretariat, including the chief minister’s office, except the office chamber of Mr Kumar and that of his personal assistant. “The CBI has already clarified that the office of the chief minister Delhi was neither searches nor sealed,” she said.

Mr Kumar was subjected to a marathon nine-hour questioning along with two other accused as the agency tried to look for a quid pro quo in a corruption case against him. Despite repeated queries on the alleged benefits, if at all, received by Mr Kumar for purportedly favouring a software firm, CBI sources limited themselves to saying that the owners of the firm had worked with Mr Kumar “at some point of time.” Along with Mr Kumar, the CBI also examined owner of Endeavour Systems Private Limited Dinesh Gupta and managing director of Intelligent communication systems India Limited R.S. Kaushik here at its headquarters.

Sources claimed that Mr Kumar has been providing information which was not given by him on Tuesday. Mr Kumar arrived at the CBI headquarters at 9.40 am for the questioning and left at around 6.45 pm in the evening. His lawyer H.S. Phoolka was also in the vehicle with him.