December 16, 2015
NEW DELHI – The India chapter of global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) had warned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal about serious allegations of corruption against his principal secretary and IAS officer Rajendra Kumar by way of a letter sent through registered post in May this year.
December 16, 2015
NEW DELHI – The India chapter of global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) had warned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal about serious allegations of corruption against his principal secretary and IAS officer Rajendra Kumar by way of a letter sent through registered post in May this year.
Rajendra Kumar (circled) seen at his residence during the CBI raid on Tuesday.
The agency has not received any response from the chief minister's office till date, TI-India told Mail Today.
"We had sent a letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in May this year after we received a complaint charging IAS officer Rajendra Kumar with involvement in serious cases of graft. Though we do not wish to disclose the name of the complainant at this point of time, we have also not received any response from the CM," TI-India executive director Ashutosh Sharma told Mail Today.
Meanwhile, Kejriwal's media advisor, Nagendar Sharma, declined to respond to the matter, saying "No comments" when Mail Today contacted him. Mail Today has accessed the TI letter that was sent to Kejriwal. Copies of the letter had also been marked to Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President of India Pranab Mukherjee and the chief vigilance commissioner (CVC).
"Recently, we have received an anonymous complaint about Shri Rajendra Kumar (IAS AGMUT Cadre) alleging corruption issues as well as disproportionate assets; Complaint is addressed to Hon'ble Lt. Governor, Delhi. Our organization requests you to kindly look into the issue and take necessary steps to ensure that if the allegations made against Shri Kumar are true, then appropriate steps should be taken against the accused. We urge you that refer this case to appropriate investigating agency," TI's letter to the chief minister, dated May 27, 2015, had said.
The letter had also requested the Delhi chief minister to intervene personally in the matter. "Since this is a serious issue, your personal intervention will be much appreciated," the letter had added, also saying that the office of the CM could contact TI-India if it had any questions regarding the matter.
Earlier in the day, the CBI raids at the third floor office of Kumar in the Delhi secretariat kicked up a political storm. Kejriwal called the raid politically motivated against him and said that Kumar had been used as a pretext.
In a series of tweets Kejriwal alleged that it was a ploy of the Centre to go after him. "When Modi couldn't handle me politically, he resorts to this cowardice," Kejriwal said. Kejriwal went on to call Prime Minister Narendra Modi a "coward" and a "psycopath" in another tweet.
Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) asserted through the day that it was not Kumar's office alone that was raided by the CBI, but the central agency was also looking at files from his office. "On the pretext of Rajendra, all the files of my office are being looked into," he tweeted: "I am the only CM who dismissed, on my own, a minister n a senior officer on charges of corruption and handed their cases to CBIâ¦IF CBI had any evidence against Rajender, why didn't they share it wid me? I wud have acted against him."
Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) had warned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in May this year.
While Kejriwal declared the CBI raid as an "undeclared emergency", he also went on to suggest that Kumar was being netted by the premier investigating agency as he was the CM's officer. "My question-had Rajender not been my secretary, then wud he have been raided? No. Then who is the target-Rajender or me," Kejriwal tweeted.
Kejriwal, after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was forced to make a statement over the issue in Parliament due to a furore from the Opposition, also went on to allege the CBI was looking for a particular file pertaining to an alleged corruption case in Delhi's cricket body DDCA under Jaitley's watch. "This is the DDCA file under which Jaitley is getting trapped (Ye file hai DDCA ka file jiske andar Arun Jaitley phas rahe hain)," Kejriwal claimed.
Jaitley, however, rubbished the accusation saying: "I do not think I need to respond to this rubbish." Meanwhile, the BJP too came down heavily on the Delhi chief minister. Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad took potshots at Kejriwal at a press meet at the BJP headquarters. Questioning Kejriwal over the appointment of an officer facing corruption allegations, he said: "We as ministers always do due diligence before appointing our PS. Kejriwal too should have done that."
The BJP also demanded an apology from Kejriwal for calling Modi a coward and a psychopath.
Prasad reiterated the CBI had acquired a court warrant. "Which law says that CBI should have informed the chief minister before raiding his officer's office? There is no such law. You (Kejriwal) would announce names of corrupt people in your press conferences and it was fair and here CBI is acting as per law and you claim it is bad," he said.
Prasad noted that the CBI had raided 14 places and only two of them belonged to Kumar. "The charges date back prior to the AAP government coming to power," he said. "A textbook case of corruption is being given political colour for extraneous reasons," Prasad added.
Courtesy: Mail Today
