In a setback to the Aam Aadmi Party Government, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday set aside a trial court’s order directing the CBI to return documents seized during raids on the office of Delhi Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar, saying the order contained self-contradictory reasons.
Agreeing with submissions made by the CBI that the seized documents are vital for the investigation, the Bench of Justice PS Teji allowed the CBI’s appeal and quashed the trial court’s order. The Bench went on to say that the trial court exceeded its jurisdiction and the order had self-contradictory reasons.
On February 1, the CBI had told the HC that the seized documents were not affecting functioning of the AAP Government, as it was alleged.
It had said that at the “initial stage of investigation relevance of the documents cannot be disclosed even if known to the probe agency, as it can hamper the ongoing investigation”.
Opposing the trial court’s order, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the CBI, said that the documents in its possession will “not hamper their (the Delhi government) functioning and it cannot be said that these are unrelated documents” and “the order has completely demoralised the investigating agency”.
The Delhi government had countered CBI’s contention, saying the “agency has picked up documents which have nothing to do with the investigation and it is hampering the government’s functioning”.
The agency had contended that the Special CBI Judge had failed to appreciate that the Delhi government has already obtained photocopies of the documents seized and thus the order of returning the documents was “wholly misconceived”.
The CBI had raided office of Kumar on December 15, last year and registered a corruption case against him and others alleging that he had abused his official position by “favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders from a Delhi government department”.