CBI files charges against Arvind Kejriwal’s ex-principal secretary

New Delhi: The CBI has filed chargesheet against suspended IAS officer Rajendra Kumar, the then principal secretary to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, in connection with alleged corruption case against him. Besides Mr Kumar, Tarun Sharma, former deputy secretary in Mr Kejriwal’s office, Kumar’s close aide Ashok Kumar and managing director of a PSU, R.S. Kaushik, co-owner of ESPL, Sandeep Kumar and Kaushik’s predecessor G.K. Nanda, former managing director of Intelligent Communi-cation Systems India Ltd (ICSIL), a Delhi government undertaking, have also been named in the chargesheet.

According to sources, the 1989-batch IAS officer has been charged for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery under Indian Penal Code besides provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act along with eight others and Endeavour Systems Private Limited. Dinesh Kumar Gupta, Jaidev Rath and Mukesh Mehta have also been named in the chargesheet which has been filed in the special CBI court recently.

It was alleged by the CBI in the FIR that the accused persons had entered into a criminal conspiracy and caused a loss of Rs 12 crore to the Delhi government in award of contracts between 2007 and 2015. The FIR had also claimed that the officials had taken “undue benefit” of over Rs 3 crore while awarding the contract. The agency had analysed voice recording which were found on laptops seized during its searches. The voice sample showed that Mr Kumar was allegedly seeking undue favours for the ESPL. The CBI had registered a case in December last year alleging that Mr Kumar had abused his official position by “favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders of Delhi government departments.”

The agency has further alleged that Mr Kumar had prior association with Sandeep Kumar and D.K. Gupta, both directors of Endeavour, and he allegedly facilitated award of five contracts of worth Rs 9.5 crore to the company between 2007-14. As chairman of Delhi Transco in 2009, he allegedly facilitated contract worth Rs 40.5 lakh for development of comprehensive management information system to Endeavour without inviting tender, the CBI alleged.

 As secretary, health and family welfare, Mr Kumar allegedly facilitated award of manpower project worth Rs 2.43 crore to Endeavour through ICSIL in November 2010 without inviting any tender.