Suspended IAS officer Rajendra Kumar has sought voluntary retirement alleging that CBI officers probing a graft case against him had pressured him to implicate Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, charges rejected as "absolutely baseless" by the probe agency.
The AAP Government, which has been defending Kumar who was Principal Secretary to Kejriwal, attacked the Modi Government, latching on to the letter by the officer to Delhi Chief Secretary M M Kutty which has several other allegations as well including that "dozens of people" were assaulted by CBI personnel in custody.
While the Chief Minister said the officer's remarks show that the Modi Government is afraid of them, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia claimed that there was a plan by the Centre to arrest Kejriwal and him.
"Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah are hell bent on murder of democracy in the country. They let loose the CBI on their political opponents," Sisodia told reporters.
Kumar was arrested in July last year in connection with alleged corruption in awarding contract to certain IT firms. He was later suspended from service and was chargesheeted in the case.
The Central Government on Thursday maintained that it does not interfere in the functioning of the probe agency.
"CBI is independent agency and the government does not interfere in its functioning," said Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Ministry — which acts as nodal authority for the probe agency.
He said the Government will look into Kumar's request for voluntary retirement when it is received.
The 1989 batch IAS officer, against whom CBI had last month filed a charge sheet for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery under along with eight others, alleged that the "same set of people who forced bureaucrat BK Bansal and his son to commit suicide" were involved in harassing him.
"During interrogation, I was repeatedly told that I would be let free if I implicate Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. May be this was the reason for the agency to go to such extraordinary length.
"Not only this the CBI, just to force people to implicate me and the Chief Minister, has beaten up dozens of people and some of them sustained permanent major injuries. These facts are very common knowledge of everybody in the government, but nobody has the courage to raise or question it," Kumar alleged in the letter.
The CBI strongly refuted the allegations, calling them "absolutely baseless" and an attempt to influence the matter which is subjudice.