PWD scam: Court issues production warrant for Kejriwal's arrested kin

A Delhi court today issued production warrant for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's relative Vinay Bansal, arrested in connection with an alleged scam in the Public Works Department (PWD), after the Tihar jail authorities failed to produce him.

The court took a stern view and directed the jail authorities to explain the absence of Bansal, a nephew of Kejriwal, who was sent to one-day judicial remand yesterday after he fainted in the court room and was rushed to nearby hospital.

"The accused has not been produced by jail superintendent, Tihar jail. No intimation from the superintendent regarding his non-production. Production warrant be issued against the accused with a direction to the jail superintendent to explain non-production of the accused. The accused to be brought tomorrow," Additional Sessions Judge Sanjay Khanagwal said.

Bansal, through his counsel B S Joon, also moved a bail application on the ground that all allegations were baseless and the FIR filed against him was false and frivolous. He said Bansal was currently in Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital here.

The application, which will be heard on May 14, also said he has been cooperating with the investigating agency since the FIR was lodged in May last year and never evaded the process of law.

A duty magistrate had yesterday remanded Bansal to a day's judicial custody while refusing the Anti-Corruption Branch's plea seeking his three-day remand.

In the court room packed with lawyers and mediapersons, Bansal had fainted during the hearing and a stretcher was brought to take him to the CAT ambulance stationed outside the court premises. The proceedings were halted for a few minutes.

The probe agency had yesterday argued that custodial interrogation was necessary for digging out the true factual position in the case.

Bansal, the son of Kejriwal's late brother-in-law Surender Bansal, was arrested yesterday by the ACB. Three FIRs, including one against a company run by the chief minister's brother-in-law Surender Bansal, were registered by the ACB in this case on May 9 last year.

Three companies, including Renu Constructions (owned by Bansal, Kamal Singh and Pawan Kumar), were also named in the FIRs.

In a complaint, Rahul Sharma, founder of NGO Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO), had alleged financial irregularities in building a drain in north-west Delhi and that Kejriwal and PWD minister Satyendra Jain misused their office for grant of contracts to Bansal. However, they were not named in the FIR.