Upset with govt, IAS goes on leave

Upset over the AAP government’s failure to defend him in connection with a scam related to the conversion of industrial sheds from leasehold to freehold, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s trusted lieutenant Chetan Bhushan Sanghi is said to have proceeded on long leave. With Mr Sanghi on leave and Rajendra Kumar, another trusted lieutenant of Mr Kejriwal, facing CBI action, many in the city administration fear that the government’s functioning was going to be affected in the coming days.

A highly-placed source said that prior to the registration of the case against Mr Sanghi, the 1988 IAS officer had reportedly requested home minister Satyendra Jain to intervene in the matter. He is also said to have told Mr Kumar that the government should defend him as he had openly supported it in framing key policies. “When the case got registered against him, he was very upset with the AAP government. That’s precisely why he has proceeded on leave.”

The anti-corruption wing of the city administration had recently registered an FIR against Mr Sanghi and officials of the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastr-ucture Development Corporation Limited (DSIIDC) in a case related to the alleged “scam in the conversion of over 360 industrial sheds from leasehold to freehold”.

The case was registered under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act. The FIR was registered following a complaint by advocate and RTI activist Vivek Garg to the ACB in August.

The source said that Mr Sanghi had been insisting that the government should clear the conversion rule of the industrial sheds from a back date through a Cabinet decision. “But the government had refused to take any such decision.”

Earlier, the Union government had debarred Mr Sanghi from Central deputation for a period of five years. “There is some matter for which he has been barred from Central posting,” a senior bureaucrat told this newspaper.

Mr Sanghi, who had been working as the principal secretary, had been in-charge of the PWD, industry and vigilance departments. He was also the director of local bodies in the urban development department.

Mr Sanghi is said to have played a key role in preparing an inquiry report on the functioning of the Delhi District Cricket Association.