In what could debunk Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s claim that he was the real target behind the CBI searches at his Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar’s office in a corruption case at the Delhi Secretariat, the CBI on Wednesday claimed to have recovered five audio clips suggesting the senior bureaucrat was allegedly issuing oral instructions to favour a private firm accused in the case.
Agency sources said these audio clips pertain to the period between 2011 and 2013 and were retrieved from Kumar’s e-mail account during the course of the ongoing investigation into the case.
Kumar was allegedly issuing oral instructions to certain officials to influence and manipulate contracts in to favour of Endeavour Systems Pvt. ltd, a firm also accused in the case, the sources said.
The sources said the CBI has collected voice samples of Kumar by following due process. These voice samples are being compared with the audio clips in order to ascertain the veracity of the audio.
Kumar, a 1989-batch IAS officer of AGMUT cadre, initially refused to share his email password to sleuths during his detailed examination but later provided the details.
The voice samples will be matched forensically and the revelations could help in nailing the accused persons and could bring suspects under scrutiny.
The CBI 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 the Delhi Government Departments”.
Kumar has been booked under 120-B of IPC (criminal conspiracy), and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act relating criminal misconduct by a public servant for allegedly favouring the private company in bagging five contracts worth Rs9.5 crore during 2007-14.
Kumar was allegedly instrumental in the award of various Government projects to Endeavour Systems through PSU Intelligent Communi-cations Systems India ltd.