New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday said former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit knew about a ‘scam’ that took place in a city cooperative bank during her tenure, but did not take any action. Ms Dikshit went out of her way to shield M.M.Kutty (present chief secretary), who was then principal secretary.
The allegations came a day after Ms Dikshit slammed Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. To the Mr Kejriwal’s comment that “90 per cent IAS officers do not work” in Delhi, she had tweeted, “Kejriwalji, Delhi has some of the most efficient bureaucrats. They helped me tirelessly in achieving my goal of transforming Delhi,” she had tweeted on Tuesday.
Addressing the media, AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said that the directors of Lajpat Nagar branch of Delhi Nagrik Sahkari Bank were involved in the alleged scam and the directors were elected fraudulently.
He said that 80 per cent of the loans worth crores of rupees were given based on fake documents and 58 per cent of the loans had turned into NPAs.
“But the fact remains that many selected candidates were related to the chairperson and directors in one way or another. It cannot be a sheer coincidence,” Mr Bharadwaj added. He said of the 67,000 members of the bank, only 14,000 were found to be real. The Congress leaders were involved in the scam, he said and left the rest unsaid.
Mr Bharadwaj said though an inquiry was conducted in 2012 into loans and recruitment of the bank, during Ms Dikshit’s tenure, no action was taken. The officer who conducted the inquiry had recommended probe into the matter but nothing was done, Mr Bharadwaj said.
“The reason behind Ms Dikshit praising officers is clear. They are evading accountability for a scam committed when she was the Delhi CM,” he said.
Showing purported pages of the bank’s register, he claimed they show Ms Dikshit had purchased 1,000 membership forms of the bank. He said a Delhi Assembly committee was looking into the case. Mr Bharadwaj said the scam had allegedly happened right under her nose. He asked “And when accountability is being fixed on Mr Kutty and Registrar of Cooperative Society at that time, why does she have a problem?”
