CBI registers corruption case linked to deceased relative of Kejriwal

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered an FIR in connection with alleged corruption involving a now-deceased man, said to be a close relative of former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, in a Government contract for constructing a drain, officials said on Sunday.

The case was earlier probed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau of the Delhi Government and was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by the Ministry of Home Affairs in September last year.

It is alleged that the accused contractor, Surender Kumar Bansal, had got the contract in 2015-16 in the name of various companies and took the payment, but the work was never executed. One such company was Kamal Singh, according to the FIR.

A second FIR has also been registered with Kamal Singh listed as the accused, the officials said.

Bansal used the name of Kamal Singh and thereby cheated the public treasury by using fake invoices of Bhardwaj Enterprises, they said. According to the CBI, the work was awarded to Bansal at a price 46 per cent lower than the market price by manipulating technical marks under the influence of Kejriwal.

Bansal passed away in 2017, the Aam Aadmi Party had said in 2024 and termed these allegations baseless and a witchhunt.

“That it is prayed that the role of (the former) chief minister of NCT-Delhi must also be investigated as he has caused the substantive gains to Bansal and his other relatives by using his chief ministerial influence,” the complaint said.