Delhi secretariat raid: HC asks CBI to give copies of seized docs

The high court said the documents were required as it wanted to examine their relevancy to establish whether the original papers can be retained by the CBI or not

The Delh high court on Monday directed the CBI to supply it and the AAP government with photocopies of the documents seized by the agency during raids at the office of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s principal secretary Rajendra Kumar on December 15.

Media crew members sit outside the Delhi secretariat building which houses the offices of the state Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other senior officials. (REUTERS File Photo)

The court said the documents were required as it wanted to examine their relevancy to establish whether the original papers can be retained by the CBI or not.

The court ordered the documents to be supplied within two days and listed the matter for hearing on January 29.

“Whatever documents you (CBI) have seized, you have to give one set of photocopy of all those to the court and the counsel for Delhi government,” justice PS Teji said. The judge said the agency may keep the originals with it so that the court “can look into it at any point during the arguments”.

The judge wanted to see the documents to know whether they were important or not. “I am not aware of the contents of the documents. You get me one set of documents,” the judge said. The high court’s direction came on CBI’s plea seeking stay on a trial court order asking it to release the seized documents to the Delhi government, saying it needed them as the investigation was on.