Kejriwal should tender 'unqualified apology' to PM for his 'coward remark': Ravi Shankar Prasad

Hitting back at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kerjiwal for his remarks over the CBI raid in connection with a graft case against Chief Minister's Secretary Rajender Kumar and his aides, Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday said the former should tender an unqualified apology for putting completely baseless allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Arvind Kejriwal should apologise to the Prime Minister for using words like 'coward'. It's totally uncalled for, unwarranted, shameful and condemnable. I would expect that he, holding a constitutional post, will tender an unqualified apology for putting completely baseless allegations against the Prime Minister of India," Prasad told a press conference here.

"We were constrained to comment because the motivated, baseless, malafide attack have been made by Arvind Kejriwal and others on our Prime Minister and the government," he added.

Justifying the raid, Prasad further said that it's a serious case of corruption and there was no raid conducted at the Chief Minister's office.

"Allegations against Rajendra Kumar are very serious. It's a case of abuse of authority for undue enrichment. CBI must be allowed to work in a free and fair manner. It's a serious case of corruption and the CBI has not only raided house and office of Rajendra Kumar but also several other officers involved in it. The CBI has raided 14 places," he said.

"I want to clarify that there was no raid conducted by CBI at the CM's office. The CBI has conducted the raid after a proper search warrant issued by the competent court," he added.

According to CBI sources, a corruption case has been registered against Rajendra Kumar, Principal Secretary to the Delhi Chief Minister on the allegation that he misused his official position to favour a particular firm in getting tenders from various Delhi government departments. After taking warrants, the agency initiated searches on the residential and the official premises of the Secretary at Delhi Secretariat.

Papers of three immovable properties along with cash worth Rs. 2.4 lakhs have been recovered from his residence.