A special court in Delhi today granted bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s former Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar who is in judicial custody in relation to a graft case.
Arrested in an alleged corruption case worth over Rs 50 crore, Kumar has been granted conditional bail by Patiala House Court against a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh.
Besides the personal bond, the court has also directed Kumar to cooperate in the investigation, not to tamper with the evidences, not to harass witnesses. Further conditions imposed on Kumar include restrictions on hs travel outside the country without permission from the CBI.
Kumar was sent to CBI custody earlier this month along with Deputy Secretary in Kejriwal's office Tarun Sharma, Kumar's close aide Ashok Kumar and owners of a private firm Endeavour Systems Pvt Ltd, Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Gupta.
Seeking CBI’s reply on the bail plea of the accused, Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar had issued notice to the probe agency and fixed the matter for hearing on July 27 on the bail application of owner of a private firm, Endeavour Systems Pvt Ltd (ESPL), Dinesh Kumar Gupta.
The court had earlier ordered defreezing of Gupta's bank account. He had told the court he and his family were going through a tough time due to the freezing of the accounts.
Besides Kumar, all other accused have also moved the court seeking bail in the case.
Besides the five accused, CBI had also arrested the co-owner of ESPL, Sandeep Kumar and Mr Kaushik's predecessor G K Nanda, former Managing Director of Intelligent Communication Systems India Ltd (ICSIL), a Delhi government undertaking.
According to CBI, the five accused were allegedly showing undue favours to private firm ESPL which the agency alleged was floated by Kumar for the award of government contracts worth over Rs. 50 crore.
CBI had registered a case against Kumar and others in December last year alleging that the officer had abused his official position by "favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders of Delhi government departments".
The accused have been charged under section 120-B of Indian Penal Code (criminal conspiracy) and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act relating to criminal misconduct for allegedly favouring ESPL in bagging of five contracts.
The CBI has alleged 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, and claimed that the officials had taken "undue benefit" of over Rs. three crore while awarding the contracts.
This is the same case in which the agency had come under scathing criticism from court which had directed it to return documents sought by Delhi government seized during December 15, 2015 search of Mr Kejriwal's office.
Arrest of top state government official had triggered a political storm with the Delhi government accusing Centre of indulging in "political vendetta" and "paralysing" governance.
(With PTI inputs)
