Was pressured by CBI to implicate Kejriwal: Delhi CM’s ex-principal secretary

Less than a month after being charged by the CBI for alleged corruption, IAS officer Rajendra Kumar has accused the investigating agency of pressurising him to implicate

Less than a month after being charged by the CBI for alleged corruption, IAS officer Rajendra Kumar has accused the investigating agency of pressurising him to implicate Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

IAS officer Rajendra Kumar produced at Patiala court in New Delhi on July 10, 2016.The former principal secretary to Delhi chief minister has claimed that he was pressurised by the CBI to implicate Arvind Kejriwal. (Sushil Kumar / HT File Photo)

The 1989-batch officer also said he sought voluntary retirement from the coveted service.

Kumar was principal secretary to Kejriwal until his suspension following his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation last year. The CBI had first raided Kumar’s office in connection with a corruption case on December 15, 2015.

In his letter to Delhi’s chief secretary on Wednesday, Kumar said, “During interrogation I was repeatedly told that I would be let free if I implicate chief minister of Delhi. May be this was the reason for the CBI to go to such extraordinary lengths.”

“Not just this, just to force CBI to implicate me and the chief minister of Delhi, the interrogators have beaten dozens of people and some of them sustained permanent major injuries,” Kumar alleged in the letter.

Kumar, who has been accused of causing a loss of Rs 12 crore by awarding contracts to known people between 2007 and 2012, also likened his interrogation by CBI officials to that of BK Bansal, whose entire family including the IAS officer, committed suicide.

Sources said procedurally, the chief secretary will have to forward the letter, with request of voluntary retirement, to the Union home ministry for further action.

In his letter, however, Kumar has argued that no reference to the home ministry was required in the case as “powers of state government under the All India Services Act and Rules” was “with the government of NCT of Delhi”.