Delhi government, Centre continue to bicker over CBI raids

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday said that it will produce before court a search-cum-seizure memo, which will contain details of all seized items from Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s principal secretary Rajender Kumar.

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday said that it will produce before court a search-cum-seizure memo, which will contain details of all seized items from Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s principal secretary Rajender Kumar.

The CBI raid on Kumar’s office over an alleged case of corruption triggered a political slugfest between the AAP and the centre (AFP)

The agency said that the seizures during the 14 raids carried out by it, in Delhi and various locations in Uttar Pradesh, were in accordance with the law.

Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party government in the city reiterated its earlier accusations against the CBI, maintaining that the agency had also searched Kejriwal’s office and seized records of file movements in November and December.

“I want to categorically say that it was the CM’s office where the raid was conducted, DDCA (Delhi and District Cricket Association) files were looked into,” deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said.

“File movement register of the chief minister’s office has been seized. If the raid was not about the chief minister’s present term, why was the register seized?

However, Kejriwal refuted Jaitley’s statement, launching a fresh attack on the BJP leader by claiming that he had “misled” Parliament.

“CBI kept reading DDCA file in my office.They wud hv seized it. But after my media briefing, they left it. Not clear if they took a copy. Docs seized from my office.No relation to allegations being probed. Item 7-file movement register of last one month,” he said in a series of tweets.

In his tweets, Kejriwal also suggested that Jaitley was worried about Delhi government’s probe into the functioning of DDCA.

The CBI raid on Kumar’s office over an alleged case of corruption triggered a political slugfest between the AAP and the centre, resulting in Kejriwal lashing out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over Twitter.

The CBI said that it has registered a case against Kumar and others on allegations that he abused his official position by favouring a private company in getting tenders from Delhi government from 2007 to 2014 worth Rs 9.5 crore.

Kumar has been booked under Indian Penal Code Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and Sections 13(2) and 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, which relate to criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct.