New Delhi: The war of words, allegations and counter-allegations raged for the second consecutive day Wednesday between the BJP and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal over the alleged CBI raids at the Delhi CM’s office. Firing a direct salvo at Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, the Delhi government alleged that the CBI had seized files containing “Cabinet decisions” and that these related to the Delhi District Cricket Association. Stepping up attack on Mr Jaitley, the AAP demanded his immediate resignation to ensure a free and fair probe into allegations of corruption in DDCA.
The finance minister, who had earlier termed the charges as rubbish, said he couldn’t reply to vague allegations and suggested that the AAP was trying to deflect the issue of alleged corruption by a senior Delhi bureaucrat. Under attack over its raids at Mr Kejriwal’s Players Building office, the CBI justified the action, saying the list of files seized would be placed before the court while it continued to question principal secretary Rajendra Kumar in a corruption case for the second day.
Mr Kejriwal alleged there was corruption in the DDCA during Mr Jaitley’s 13-year-long tenure as its president.
“A fair investigation is not possible into the DDCA’s irregularities as long as Mr Jaitley remains finance minister. So he should immediately tender his resignation,” AAP leader Sanjay Singh tweeted. AAP leader Ashutosh claimed that BJP MP Kirti Azad had levelled charges of corruption against Mr Jaitley as DDCA chief. Reacting to the AAP allegations, Mr Jaitley said: “They can tell me what is the specific issue and I can answer it. I can’t answer a vague allegation without any basis.
Second, a state government and a party which is in the dock for having supported corruption and having interfered in an investigation in this manner can’t really deflect the issue without any basis.” The Delhi government had in November ordered a probe into the DDCA’s functioning after a group of veteran cricketers, including Bishen Singh Bedi, had met Mr Kejriwal to apprise him of the alleged DDCA scam. The probe committee submitted a damning report against the cricket body, mentioning financial bungling.
Repeating his allegations, Mr Kejriwal said the CBI had gone through a file pertaining to an inquiry committee report on alleged irregularities in the DDCA. In a series of tweets, the Delhi CM said: “CBI kept reading DDCA file in my office. They would have seized it. But after my media briefing, they left it. Not clear if they took a copy. Documents seized from my office. No relation to allegations being probed. Item 7 file movement register of last one month.”
AAP spokesman Deepak Bajpai said the party will hold a press conference on Thursday where it will expose the “massive corruption” in the DDCA. Mr Sanjay Singh said the “CBI raid on Arvind Kejriwal’s office” was carried out as the Delhi government planned to set up a probe committee to look into this matter.
Heightening the unprecedented acrimony, Mr Kejriwal and deputy CM Manish Sisodia raised fresh allegations against the CBI, accusing it of seizing documents that were “unrelated” to its probe against Mr Kumar. The CM also launched a fresh attack on Mr Jaitley, saying he had “misled” Parliament by saying the CBI did not raid his office. Addressing a press conference, Mr Sisodia wondered why the CBI allegedly seized the “file movement register of November-December” and “three files of the transport department”. He asked: “What is the connection? The CBI also scrutinised files of DDCA. They even planned to seize them but did not do so after the chief minister raised the issue.”
In his tweets, Mr Kejriwal also suggested Mr Jaitley was worried about the Delhi government’s probe into the DDCA’s functioning. The finance minister had Tuesday dismissed the allegations against him as “rubbish”. Mr Kejriwal also uploaded the image of a document listing the files allegedly taken away by the CBI from the Delhi Secretariat during its day-long raid.
Mr Sisodia, who alleged the CBI raided a room where the chief minister’s files and affidavits were kept, stood by his claim and said Parliament was being “misled” by stating “wrong facts”. He said: “If the raid was in the chief minister’s office, it was in his office. One cannot say that a clerk’s office was raided and not the chief minister’s.” Mr Sisodia said the AAP was “not scared” of any inquiry but wants the “independence” of the CBI, not an outfit that is a “slave” of the Centre and acts on its instructions. Mr Sisodia added: “Whatever party is ruling in the Centre, if it uses the CBI against its opponents, how can it be independent?”
The CBI, on its part, justified the action, saying the list of all files seized will be placed before a court. It continued to question the principal secretary for the second day.
“CBI seizures during the searches at all 14 places were in the presence of independent witnesses, as per procedures laid down by the law. The search-cum-seizure memo containing details of all seized items will be produced before the competent court,” spokesperson Devpreet Singh said.
CBI sources claimed it had recovered documents on bank balances of approximately Rs 28 lakhs from Mr Kumar, a 1989-batch IAS officer from the AGMUT cadre, who is facing a probe for allegedly favouring a private firm in government contracts. Documents on fixed deposits worth Rs1.66 crore were allegedly found from A.K. Duggal, a former MD of ICSIL, CBI sources claimed. The IAS officer arrived at the CBI headquarters at around 9.40 am on Wednesday for questioning over the case filed against him and six others on December 14. Mr Kumar was questioned by the CBI for about seven hours till late Tuesday night.
