CBI brings Kejriwal's PS, other accused face to face

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar and four others were brought face to face by CBI officials in connection with the probe in an alleged corruption case.
Sources said today that all the accused are being confronted with each other to unravel the conspiracy behind the alleged scam.
The evidence gathered by the CBI during the probe so far are being shown to the accused, who were also told about the alleged monetary benefits they got by engaging in alleged corrupt practices in award of Delhi Government contracts to a private firm -Endeavour Systems.
Meanwhile, the agency officials claimed to have found the trail of money, which was given to the accused as bribe, the sources said.

Kumar and four others were arrested by the CBI on Monday for allegedly showing undue favours to a private company in award of government contracts worth over Rs 50 crore. They were yesterday sent to five days CBI remand by a court.
The arrest of top government official has triggered a political storm with the Delhi government accusing the Centre of indulging in "political vendetta" and "paralysing" governance.

Kumar, a 1989 batch IAS officer of union territories cadre, and Tarun Sharma, a Deputy Secretary in Kejriwal's office, are those who have been arrested in the case. The other accused are-- Ashok Kumar, a former Delhi government employee considered a close aide of Rajendra Kumar, besides owners of the private firm Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Gupta.

(REOPENS DEL 39)
The charges pressed by the CBI are under sections 120-B of IPC (criminal conspiracy), and 13(2), 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (Criminal conspiracy, criminal misconduct etc) for allegedly favouring the private company --Endeavour Systems Pvt Ltd-- in bagging five contracts.
The CBI has alleged that the accused persons had entered into a criminal conspiracy and caused a loss of Rs 12 crore to the Delhi government in award of contracts between 2007 and 2015, and claimed that the officials had taken "undue benefit" of over Rs three crore while awarding the contract.
This is the same case in which CBI had come under scathing criticism from court which directed it to return documents sought by the Delhi government seized during December 15, 2015 raids on Kejriwal's office.

"The CBI cannot retain the documents in the garb of the argument that investigation is in progress without whispering the fact in what manner they are related to the present case (against Rajendra Kumar).
"The acceptance of vague reasons like investigation is still in progress implies that CBI is recognised with unbridled power to investigate even in violation of the relevant laws and regulations," Special CBI Judge Ajay Kumar Jain had said in his order in January this year.
The case was registered on a complaint from former Delhi Dialogue Commission member Ashish Joshi to the Delhi government's Anti-Corruption Branch earlier last year. The complaint was forwarded to CBI in July last following which the agency registered an FIR after a five-month probe.

The probe agency has yesterday in the court claimed that "lies" were being spread about the IAS officer that he was holding the Delhi government like the mythological 'Seshnag'.