The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had come fully prepared on Tuesday to raid the office of Rajendra Kumar, the Principal Secretary (services) and Staff Officer to the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The CBI team led by a superintendent of police rank officer, swooped on the 3rd floor office of Kumar at around 8.45 am a day ago and then waited for the staff members of Kumar’s office to come. “The team comprises of a superintendent of police, a deputy superintendent of police and nine inspectors,” said an official. The team left at 11: 30 pm on Tuesday with volumes of documents.
They kept on talking to him and even cracked jokes. The bewitched staffer could not comprehend what was in store for them. It soon dawned upon him that what the fuss was all about.
The CBI team was armed with full details about all those posted in Kumar’s office and before anybody could gauge the situation, the sleuths had moved in to carry out the search. They had blocked all the entries to the Kumar’s room.
The CBI team, however, did not obstruct the functioning of the other staffers and officers posted in the Chief Minister’s office as the focus of their attention was the staff officer to the CM.
A security guard posted outside the CM Office on Tuesday morning stated that a team of a total 11 CBI officers came outside the CM Office and first rounded up Kumar’s staff at 9 am.
They were kept confined in one room as raids were being conducted in Kumar’s room. He also claimed that no one was allowed to come on third floor on the secretariat.
In the afternoon, a team went to the eighth floor of the building to raid the office of the Principal Secretary of Information and Technology but they returned within minutes and summoned Deputy Commissioner rank officers of Information and Technology and Food and Supply Department.
A Delhi Government employee posted at Kumar’s office alleged that “five employees assisting Kumar and the CM” were locked in a room and thereafter all the diaries were seized. “Most importantly, after the file diary, they started demanding for all the files of November and December that came to Kumar’s office,” he said.
He further pointed out that CBI sleuths were looking for files related to Education, Food and Supply and Information and Technology departments and when they were unable to get any, they summoned officers posted in these departments to join the probe.
He further pointed out that the CBI sleuths clicked pictures of almost all the files kept inside the Kumar’s room and his staff room. They were in constant touch with senior officer and were also getting directions from their seniors over phone.