Opening yet another front against lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, the Arvind Kejriwal Government on Tuesday announced setting up a Commission of Enquiry to be headed by a retired Delhi High Court judge S N Agarwal and its terms of reference will be announced in a day or two.
The Delhi Cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal to this effect. For long the AAP Government has been accusing the l-G of trying to shield the officers found guilty by a CBI probe into the scam which was detected by the Delhi Government’s Anti-Corruption Branch in 2002.
After the Cabinet meeting, Home Minister Satyendra Jain said the Commission will look into all the investigations and developments that have taken place so far in this case, including wrongful denials of sanctions to prosecute guilty officials and dereliction of duty in taking action against those involved in the scam.
But top officials in the Delhi Government are still in dilemma as to who is the boss - the l-G or CM this despite the fact that the l-G in his previous letter has made it clear that Delhi being a UT, he is the boss of Delhi .
It is noted that Justice (retired) Mukul Mudgal had already probed the alleged scam after he was he was appointed by the l-G to see if there was any irregularity in the CNG fitness issue that had come to light in 2012 when the ACB found that the Delhi Government had lost nearly Rs100 crore in alleged irregularities in awarding of contract to operate and maintain inspection and certification of CNG vehicles at the transport authority in Burari to ESP India Pvt ltd instead of ESP USA.
The Mudgal committee had in its report dated June 10, 2014, had noted there were “discrepancies but it had said the “omission was not mala fide but was inadvertent in nature”. Following the Mudgal committee report, the l-G had noted that there is no case made out in the CNG fitness scam.
Top sources said the AAP Government wants to target the l-G by announcing another Commission. When asked whether Jung or former Chief Minister Dikshit will be questioned, Jain said it will be up to the Commission to decide. He said lt Governor’s approval was not necessary in appointing the Commission. Government sources claimed that the Commission will have power to grill Jung and Dikshit in the case.
“The Government decision follows largescale complaints that deliberate attempts have been made to hush-up a mega scam in which there are allegations of more than Rs100 crore loss to the State exchequer. It has been brought to the notice of the Government that two probe agencies - Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Anti Corruption Branch (ACB), separately found sufficient evidence to proceed against several serving and retired officials of Delhi Government,” the Government said in a statement.
The AAP had accused the l-G of trying to hush up the scam. When asked whether Jung or former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit will be questioned, Jain said it will be up to the Commission to decide.
He said l-G’s approval was not necessary in appointing the Commission of Enquiry. During AAP’s earlier 49-day stint, Kejriwal had said all documents would be provided to the CBI after the probe agency sought some documents pertaining to the scam.
But the probe got stuck as the Kejriwal Government resigned. The sources claimed that the probe was stalled as permission to question certain officials was denied.
AAP had attacked the “continuing silence” of the Central Government and Jung on the “indictment” of a number of bureaucrats by the CBI.