Kejriwal pays up, asks govt not to harass loan-givers

Key Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday paid over Rs 9 lakh outstanding dues to settle the issue of his resignation from the Indian Revenue Services (IRS), saying he had done so in protest and wanted to know the crime committed by him.

Key Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday paid over Rs 9 lakh outstanding dues to settle the issue of his resignation from the Indian Revenue Services (IRS), saying he had done so in protest and wanted to know the crime committed by him.

Kejriwal sent a cheque of Rs 9.27 lakh along with a four-page letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in which he appealed that his six colleagues from IIT-Kharagpur, who had provided him an interest-free loan to clear the dues, should not be targeted.

"The government has been misusing its machinery for targeting Team Anna. I would sincerely urge them not to target my friends for helping me," he said. The six friends named by Kejriwal include this year's Magsaysay award winner Harish Hande. Read letter

"I am returning the dues in protest. I appeal to you to instruct the finance ministry to accept my resignation. Once my resignation is accepted, I retain my right to approach the court to reclaim the dues," the 43-year-old activist said in his letter.

The Congress reacted sharply to his letter. "Kejriwal writing to the PM is insulting his office. I don't know what designation Kejriwal held in service. He should have written to his immediate superior officer in the government," said party spokesperson Rashid Alvi.

Kejriwal, a 1995-batch IRS officer, had resigned from service in 2006, but the income tax department did not accept his resignation since dues were pending against his name.

The government has maintained that he had violated bond rules by quitting the service before completing three years of service after going on a study leave on full pay between 2000 and 2002.

However, Kejriwal said he was on non-paid leave from 2004 and quit the service after more than three-and-a-half years after returning from the paid leave.

Though the IT department maintains it had been sending repeated reminders to Kejriwal since 2006, he said the issue was raked up after he joined Team Anna and before that the department had kept quiet.

"I am enclosing a cheque… This does not mean that I have accepted the mistake. When I don't know what was the mistake I committed, then there is no question of accepting it," Kejriwal said in his letter.

Kejriwal pointed out that the decision to quit the job was taken after he realised that he was wasting himself. "Are you aware that I was not given a posting for more than a year after I returned from the study leave in 2002?" the RTI activist asked the Prime Minister.