Court sends Rajendra Kumar, six others to three days CBI custody

A court on Monday sent Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's former Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar and six others to three days CBI custody in a corruption case.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) judge Arvind Kumar remanded the seven in CBI custody when they were presented before him after the expiry of their one-day judicial custody.

The CBI had sought three days custody of the accused to bring them face-to-face with one another.

The agency, which had on Saturday arrested Intelligent Communication System India Limited (ICSIL) Managing Director R.S. Kaushik and former MD G.K. Nanda, produced three important documents before court including a forged gate pass, a diary and a flight ticket booked on the name of Rajendra Kumar as evidence.

A CBI officer, on condition of anonymity, told IANS that the forged gate pass was recovered from the premises of Ratan Prakashan Mandir book publishers in Uttar Pradesh's Agra where Rs 80 lakh was transferred by ESPL against a fake supply order of books and other items, the official said.

"During investigation, it was found that there was no any supply of books or other materials."

The CBI also produced a diary of Nanda containing details of cash transaction with Rajendra Kumar's aide Ashok Kumar.

The officer said that a flight ticket booked by Sandeep Kumar, one of the arrested directors of private firm Endeavour Systems Pvt Ltd, on the name of Rajendra Kumar was also produced before the court.

Rajendra Kumar, a 1989 batch Indian Administrative Service officer of Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory cadre, was accused of abusing his official position in awarding Delhi government contracts of Rs 9.5 crore to private firm Endeavour Systems Private Limited.

Besides Kumar, Kaushik and Nanda, the other accused in the case are Kumar's aide Ashok Kumar, Endeavour Systems Private Limited directors Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Kumar Gupta, and former VAT Department Assistant Director Tarun Sharma.

The CBI, while seeking custody of the accused, told the court that during interrogation, six addresses had been revealed by the accused and the CBI wants them to recover documents from these places.

It also said that it has recorded statements of witnesses and some fresh disclosures had come to light. The accused are required to be confronted with the fresh disclosure of witnesses.

The probe agency added that questioning of the accused is required to find out the truth of audio clips containing conversations of accused, incriminating documents and the visitors diary of Rajendra Kumar.

Defence counsel of the accused opposed the CBI plea seeking custody of their clients.

--IANS

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