Delhi LG approves ACB probe against former staffer in CM’s office

The staffer, Mukul Manrai, was looking after Jan Samvad, under the public grievance management system (PGMS) in the Chief Minister's Office (CMO). He has now been accused under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PoC Act), 1988.

State Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena has granted approval to the state’s anti-corruption branch (ACB) to conduct an investigation against Mukul Manrai, a former deputy secretary in chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s office (CMO), for allegedly seeking bribe from civil defence volunteers, senior officials from the LG’s office said on Saturday.

Delhi lieutenant governor Vinai Kumar Saxena (ANI).

Manrai, was looking after Jan Samvad, under the public grievance management system (PGMS) in the CMO. He has now been accused under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PoC Act), 1988.

“Manrai, the then deputy secretary in CMO has been charged with illegally demanding monetary gratification from a civil defence volunteer (CDV) in lieu of certifying his attendance register. Upon being refused for the demanded payment by the victim, Manrai wrote to the civil defence office for his removal, as a result of which he could not even get his last month’s salary. Manrai is currently working in the revenue department,” a senior official at Raj Niwas said, requesting anonymity.

Confirming the move, a second official in the LG office said that there were multiple other such complaints from CDVs. “It appears that Manrai, using the cover provided by CMO, had established a blatant racket of monthly collections, out of the payment being made to CDVs. It took a severely and continuously harassed complainant in the extant case to record the conversation regarding demand of money by Manrai and create evidence thereof, for the racket, with CMO as a front to start unravelling,” the second official said.

The CMO or the Delhi government did not comment on the matter.

The complaint along with the CD recording as evidence, was received in November 2017, but has not made any headway since then.

“The accused utilised his position of proximity in the CMO to deliberately delay the matter by making the file pointlessly shuffle between the Directorate of Vigilance (DoV), General Administration Department, Administrative Reforms Department and the Education Department. This obviously indicates attempts at delaying the process for benefitting the accused.”

“Upon receiving a complaint from the victim who had also submitted a CD of video recording, the ACB began enquiry by sending the CD to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for authentication. The FSL, which did a frame-by-frame analysis of the video and audio, found it to be unaltered, untampered and genuine. The ACB also submitted a transcript of the conversation, provided by FSL, between the victim and the accused,” the official added.

The DoV, after having gone through the evidence put on record by ACB found that the then Dy. Secretary in CMO abused his “official position for pecuniary gains” and recommended for investigation in the matter by ACB. “Having been satisfied with the evidence provided on file, the Lt. Governor has since granted approval for investigation by the ACB on priority,” the official said.