Court sends CM Arvind Kejriwal's principal secretary, four others to 5-day CBI custody

Agency had sought 10-day custody, claiming principal secy was an influential person.

A CBI court on Tuesday remanded Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s principal secretary Rajendra Kumar and four others, arrested in an alleged corruption case, to five days in the CBI custody to after the agency said the IAS officer was intimidating witnesses.

Special CBI judge Arvind Kumar sent Mr Kumar, deputy secretary in Mr Kejriwal’s office Tarun Sharma, Mr Kumar’s close associate Ashok Kumar and owners of a private firm, Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Gupta, to the CBI custody.

During the hearing, the CBI had sought 10-day custodial interrogation of the five accused, claiming that IAS officer Rajendra Kumar was an influential person and it was impossible to conduct a fair probe in the matter without arresting him as he was intimidating witnesses.

“He is an influential and highly-placed bureaucrat. We cannot have a fair investigation without arresting him as he was intimidating witnesses,” CBI prosecutor told the court.

At this juncture, the judge asked, “Is there any incident of intimidating witnesses ”

Responding to the query, the prosecutor said, “Yes, we have recorded the statements of such witnesses.”

The Central Bureau of Investigation alleged that there was a nexus among the arrested accused and Mr Kumar was well-acquainted with all of them and that they had conspired in award of a contract to Endeavour Systems Pvt. Ltd.

Observing that the money trail has to be ascertained, the CBI said it had the audio tapes of conversations between Mr Kumar and other accused persons.

Opposing the application for the CBI remand, senior advocate Mohit Mathur, who appeared for Mr Kumar, said no ground has been mentioned in the CBI plea which reflects that CBI remand was required.

He said there was no single paper on record which suggested that his client had any relation with other arrested accused. Mr Mathur also argued that there was no allegation against Mr Kumar that he has caused any wrongful loss to anybody.

Senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, who appeared for Mr Sharma, said his client had cooperated in the probe and there was no ground to arrest him. Similarly, the other three accused said they had also participated in the investigation and hence there was no need to arrest them.