Raid at Kejriwal's Principal Secy's office not aimed at Delhi govt, says CBI
New Delhi: CBI on Friday told a city court that the raid at the office of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's principal secretary Rajendra Kumar was not aimed at the Delhi Government but against an alleged corrupt officer who had misused his official position.
"This case is lodged against an alleged corrupt officer not against the Delhi government. He has misused his official position to favour a particular company. There are forgery aspects also in the case," the agency told Special CBI Judge A K Jain.
The CBI made the submission as it opposed the petition filed by Delhi government seeking release of documents seized by the agency during its raid on December 15 last year.
Countering the arguments of Delhi government, senior public prosecutor S C Sharma said the documents seized during the raid were relevant for the ongoing probe by CBI.
Sharma alleged that the accused in the case was a senior officer who was possessing the documents seized by the agency, and in all likelihood, he could have tampered with them.
"The case was lodged by the CBI on source information and not on a complaint, after which search warrant was issued by the court. Seizure of only the relevant documents were done during the raid. Everything was done in accordance with the law," the prosecutor told the court. The court reserved its order for January 20 on the plea by the government.
During the hearing, the judge asked the CBI whether it can seize any documents under the cover of investigation and whether the court has the power to question the relevance of the documents at this stage.
Responding to the court's query, the prosecutor said, "The case is at the stage of investigation but still the CBI can place the case diary before the court which will show the relevance of the documents seized during the raid."
Advocate Rahul Mehra, who appeared for Delhi government, rebutted the CBI's claim and said that original documents were seized "indiscriminately" by the agency during the raid.
"The CBI is bound to follow its manual and only necessary documents could be seized. They seized original documents including a cabinet note of June 2015 and a telephone diary of the Chief Minister's officer. What purpose will these documents serve," Mehra said.
