Court reserves order on Delhi government plea for documents' release

A court here on Friday reserved its order on the plea of Delhi government seeking release of the documents seized from the office of Rajendra Kumar, principal secretary of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge Ajay Kumar Jain fixed January 20 for delivering order on the plea of state government.

The CBI, while opposing the plea, said that the raid in chief minister's principal secretary Rajendra Kumar was not aimed at the Delhi government.

Senior public prosecutor S. C. Sharma said the documents seized during the raid were relevent for the ongoing probe.

The accused, who holds a top position, was possessing the documents seized by the agency, and in all likelihood, he could have tampered with them, he said, adding that the raid in the office was not aimed at the Delhi government but against an alleged corrupt officer who had misused his official position.

In the application filed last month, the government said the documents were seized by the CBI from the office of the principal secretary and his personal staff.

The application, filed by the Delhi government through standing counsel Rahul Mehra and Richa Kapoor, urged the court to direct the CBI to release the documents to the government seized "indiscriminately" by the CBI which are not related/essential for the purpose of investigation in the case.

The plea also sought initiation of "stringent action against erring officials responsible for raiding malafidely the office of the Delhi government and seizing documents to cause immense dislocation of work in the government office".

It said the entire work and functioning of the office was "greatly hampered, paralysed and dislocated".

On December 15, the CBI raided the office of Rajendra Kumar in connection with a corruption case. The CBI denied Kejriwal's claim that it was searching the chief minister's office.