CBI raids Kejriwal's Principal Secretary for alleged graft

CBI on Tuesday raised a political storm in the country when it carried out raids at 14 places including the office and residence of Rajendra Kumar Gupta, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's Principal Secretary. As the CBI team reached the third floor of Delhi Secretariat, Kejriwal tweeted that his office has been raided. The CBI spokesperson later said that reports from certain quarters regarding searches at the office of Delhi Chief Minister "are baseless".

"False propaganda should not be used to impede our investigation," the CBI spokesperson said, adding that the searches were being conducted against his Principal Secretary. Kejriwal, who termed it as an "undeclared emergency", fired another tweet saying "CBI lying. My own office raided. Files of CM office are being looked into. Let Modi say which file he wants?" As the news spread, the ongoing Parliament session saw an uproar with opposition terming the CBI as a tool in the hands of the Centre. In all, CBI carried out searches at 14 places connected with Gupta in the national capital and various locations in Uttar Pradesh and claimed to have recovered about Rs 16 lakh, including Rs 2.4 lakh in cash.

Foreign currency of the value of Rs 3 lakh from the residence of Kumar, CBI sources said. The agency said it has registered a case against Kumar and others on allegations against the officer that he abused his official position by "favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders from Delhi government departments". "After taking warrants, searches are being conducted in the office and residence of Rajendra Kumar. The allegations against Kumar were raised by Ashish Joshi, former Member Secretary, Delhi Dialogue Commission," the CBI said. Apart from Kumar, the agency has named AK Duggal and GK Nanda, former MDs of Intelligent Communication System India Limited (ICSIL), RS Kaushik, MD of ICSIL, Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh K Gupta, Directors of Ms Endeavour Systems Private Limited and the said firm as accused in their FIR filed under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the IPC. They claimed Rs 10.5 lakh cash was recovered from Nanda during the searches and documents pertaining to three immovable properties have been recovered from the residence of Principal Secretary Kumar.

They claimed Kumar was not cooperating with agency sleuths in opening his email accounts.Watch the video for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Deputy CM of Delhi, Manish Sisodia's reaction on this issue.