Arrested officers to be produced in court today

CBI sources on Monday said Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s principal secretary, Rajendra Kumar, Tarun Sharma, a deputy secretary in Mr Kejriwal’s office, and three other private persons were called to CBI headquarters for questioning Monday morning. After being questioned for half a day, the CBI decided to place the two officers under arrest along with Ashok Kumar, a close aide of Mr Rajendra Kumar, and Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Gupta, the owners of a private firm,

The charges pressed by the CBI are under IPC Section 120-B criminal conspiracy) and Prevention of Corruption Act Sections 13(2), 13(1)(d) (criminal conspiracy, criminal misconduct, etc.) for allegedly favouring a private company — Endeavour Systems Pvt. Ltd — in the awarding of five contracts. The CBI alleged that the accused persons had entered into a criminal conspiracy and caused the Delhi government a loss of Rs 12 crore in award of contracts between 2007 and 2015, and that the officials had taken “undue benefits” of over Rs 3 crore while awarding the contracts.

“The CBI has today arrested five persons, including a senior civil servant, Government of Delhi, another official of the Delhi government, two directors of a Delhi-based private company and a private person. The allegations relate to bribery and abuse of official position by the said senior civil servant and others to favour a Delhi-based private company in award of contracts of the Delhi government,” CBI chief press information officer R.K. Gaur said, adding that the arrested accused persons will be produced before a court on Tuesday. According to the CBI, the five contracts were allegedly awarded to Endeavour Systems when Mr Kumar was holding various posts in the Delhi government.