No thaw in Meena-Kejriwal jung

Joint Commissioner of Police and chief of Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) Mukesh Kumar Meena has written to Chief Secretary KK Sharma asking for access to Delhi Government’s anti-corruption helpline — 1031. Meena has sent a copy of the letter to lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung's office too. Sources said that Meena is unhappy with the Government blocking his access to the helpline. "We cannot fathom the rationale behind this move of the Arvind Kejriwal Government. On one hand, it goes to town to nail the corrupt but on the other hand, blocked the ACB from accessing the anti-corruption helpline," the sources added.

Meanwhile, continuing its vilification campaign against Meena, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has accused him of "stalling" investigation into a number of key cases and sought action against him. In a letter to the l-G who had appointed Meena as ACB chief, Kejriwal conveyed to him that Meena was not complying with orders of the Vigilance Department under which the ACB functions and that he was not allowing the agency to function effectively.

"The Chief Minister apprised the l-G of how Meena was stalling investigations as well as other important works of ACB," sources said. Meena was unavailable for comments. On June 30, the AAP Government had curtailed Meena's powers, asking him to only look after trainings and monitor cases under trial.

Sources in the Government said despite orders by Director of Vigilance Department who is the head of ACB, Meena was not complying with it."The Chief Minister also apprised the l-G of Meena not complying with the Vigilance Department's order," they said adding that action has been sought against the official.

According to Kejriwal Government, Director of Vigilance Department is competent to allocate work among the officers in the anti-graft body. On June 30, Vigilance Department director Sukesh Kumar Jain had issued an order asking Meena to look after training work and monitoring of cases undergoing trial till the High Court decides on the validity of his appointment.

In his order, Jain had said that ACB's additional commissioner SS Yadav shall report directly to him and will supervise the work of DCPs, ACPs, inspectors and SHO of police station of ACB besides supervising all investigations, inquiries and other functions of ACB and its police station.Rebutting the claims of the AAP Government, a former Chief Secretary said that Director Vigilance is the boss of ACB till it is headed by an Additional Commissioner of Police rank official. Once a Joint Commissioner of Police is appointed as the head of ACB, he or she becomes the boss and is not bound to obey the diktats of Director Vigilance.

It may be noted that few weeks back, the Delhi High Court had refused to restrain Meena from entering office of ACB as sought by the Delhi government.  On June 8, Joint Commissioner Meena, a 1989-batch Indian Police Service officer, took charge of ACB after he was appointed by Jung. The AAP government had reacted strongly by terming the appointment "illegal" and claimed that there was no post of joint commissioner in ACB.