Delhi CM may face criminal charges, says Najeeb Jung

New Delhi: Alleging “nepotism and gross favouritism,” former lieutenant-governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung on Wednesday said that Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal may face “criminal charges” over irregularities found by the Shunglu Commission in the decisions taken by the AAP government. In an explosive interview to a private news channel, Mr Jung alleged that Mr Kejriwal had set up a “secret unit” like a “counter IB” for suspected spying. His comments came a day after he met Union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi after resigning as the lieutenant governor of Delhi over two weeks back.

Mr Jung said that the appointment of Nikunj Aggarwal, a relative of Mr Kejriwal’s wife, as OSD to health minister Satyendar Jain smacks of “nepotism and gross favouritism”. The Aam Aadmi Party government had also appointed Mr Jain’s daughter Saumya Jain as an “advisor” to its mohalla clinics project. On both these issues and appointments made by DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal, Mr Jung said that it amounted to “cheating, nepotism and favouritism” and that FIRs have been registered in these cases.

When asked whether Mr Kejriwal could face criminal charges, Mr Jung said, “That is possible. There are cases that are being investigated and should the cases come to fruition and should the court find substance in the chargesheets, then there is problem.”

Mr Jung, who had a constant battle over powers of a L-G vis a vis an elected government, said Mr Kejriwal’s exuberance, inexperience and the fact that he had a brute majority perhaps contributed to his confrontational attitude.

He said as L-G he acted against Mr Kejriwal’s “tendencies” to play with the Constitution and interpret it in a manner which Mr Kejriwal thought was correct but he deemed as wrong. However, he maintained that their personal relations were extremely cordial.

Mr Jung said the Shunglu report deals with decisions taken by Mr Kejriwal and the AAP Cabinet where it had no authority do so and without his concurrence. He said the fact that the secretaries and the ministers of the government sent around 464 files to him to be examined was itself an admission of guilt of irregularities. The report, yet to be made public, can be accessed through RTI, he said.

In the interview, Mr Jung backed Delhi’s current status within India’s federal structure and said, “It should remain under the Centre’s control. That is a system that works and I am for the current form with no changes to power structure.”

Dispelling all rumors about his resignation, Mr Jung said it was his “own decision” and had earlier offered to resign twice on separate occasions, which was not accepted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Mr Jung, however, declined to comment in the interview on the performance of the Modi government and praised Union home minister Rajnath Singh and Union home minister Arun Jaitley for their approach. “In my two and a half years as an LG, I have not received any request from the Union government on official matters,” he said.