New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today made a startling claim in its case against Secretary to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Rajendra Kumar.
According to the investigating agency, five voice recordings have been recovered from the email account of Rajendra Kumar, purportedly carrying his oral instructions to allegedly influence contracts in favour of Endeavour Systems.
If the claims of the CBI turn out to be true and the voice samples match with that of Kumar, it could turn out to be a huge embarrassment for the Delhi chief minister who has left no stone unturned in his bid to protect the official.
Soon after the CBI raided the office and residence of the accused, Kejriwal claimed that the attack was actually directed at his office. The Modi government, he alleged, was looking for a file pertaining to a DDCA scam that implicated Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
According to CBI sources, Kumar was initially reluctant to share the password of his email password with the CBI sleuths during his detailed examination, but relented later.
The sources claimed that scrutiny of his email account resulted in discovery of five audio recordings pertaining to the period of 2011-13 which carry his purported instructions to the officers handling tenders and contracts to allegedly manipulate and favour Endeavour Systems, which is also named in the FIR.
The voice samples of Kumar, a 1989-batch IAS officer of AGMUT cadre, have been taken as per legal procedures and matched forensically, the sources claimed adding that the said conversations could bring more people into scrutiny.
The CBI said that it has registered a case against Kumar and others on allegations against the officer that he abused his official position by "favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders from Delhi government departments".
Kumar has been booked under 120-B of IPC (criminal conspiracy), and 13(2), 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (Criminal conspiracy, criminal misconduct etc) for allegedly favouring a private company in five contracts worth Rs 9.5 crore during 2007-14.
"The accused allegedly facilitated award of contracts worth Rs 9.50 crore (approx) to the said company through ICSIL and misused his official position as public servant. The accused were instrumental in award of projects to the said private company in Delhi Transco Ltd; Health and Family Welfare Department, GNCTD; Delhi Jal Board and Department of Trade and Taxes, GNCTD," CBI had said in the statement after the registration of the case.
(With PTI inputs)
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