CBI conducts searches in Delhi,d UP in Rajendra Kumar case

The CBI on Friday carried out searches at six locations in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh in its ongoing probe against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's former principal secretary Rajendra Kumar, who is accused of misusing his official position and facilitating tenders worth Rs 9.5 crore.

The raids were conducted in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh's Agra and Noida cities following the interrogation of Rajendra Kumar, his close aide Ashok Kumar, former assistant director of VAT department Tarun Sharma, and Endeavour Systems Private Limited (ESPL) directors Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Kumar Gupta who were arrested by the agency on Monday.

A court on Tuesday sent Rajendra Kumar and the four private persons to CBI custody till July 10.

A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official said that the raids were conducted after the interrogation of the accused.

The official said that a CBI team conducted raid at the residential premises of Rajendra Kumar's chartered accountant Amit Goel in Delhi's Rohini area and recovered Rs 27 lakh cash.

Separate CBI teams searched three premises of ESPL's director Gupta in Delhi, one premises of the Ashok Kumar's company in Sector 63 in Noida and premises of book publisher Ratan Prakashan Mandir in Agra, the official said.

The official said that Ashok Kumar's firm had received some funds from ESPL while the Agra-based publisher is said to be involved in collecting bribes in the guise of commission work transferred to him.

The official said that another ESPL director Sandeep Kumar confesses to CBI "though he had been awarded contract for using the microsoft dynamic CRM package, he was unable to do so and supplied the software which works on different platform".

"Those Microsoft dynamic software packages, worth more than three crore, were purchased by Rajendra Kumar (then VAT Commissioner) but not used," the official said citing Sandeep Kumar's confession.

The Microsoft dynamic packages, which were lying unused, have been recovered by CBI in which commission in crores were collected from VAT office, the officer said.

The CBI had on December 14, 2015 registered a FIR against Kumar, a 1989 batch IAS officer, for allegedly abusing his official position in awarding contracts from the Delhi government to ESPL.

--IANS

rak/vd