Amid his unabated attack on the Centre over the CBI action against his Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday accused the CBI of seizing documents “unrelated” to the agency’s probe against his Principal Secretary and claimed that a file relating to DDCA was scrutinised by it, drawing a rebuttal by the agency and the Centre.
Kejriwal also launched a fresh attack on Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, saying he had “misled” Parliament by saying that the CBI did not raid the Chief Minister’s Office. He said the CBI seized files containing “Cabinet decisions” during its day-long raid. “CBI kept reading DDCA file in my office. They would have seized it. But after my media briefing, they left it. Not clear if they took a copy,” said the Delhi CM.
The CBI rejected the allegations saying “blatantly incorrect information” is being spread to obstruct investigation and discredit the agency. “CBI categorically denies having seized any material during the searches which are not relevant to the investigation. CBI seizures during the searches at 14 places were in the presence of independent witnesses, as per procedure laid down by law. The search-cum-seizure memo containing details of seized items will be produced before the competent court,” a CBI spokesperson said.
later addressing the media, Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia wondered why the CBI had allegedly seized “file movement register of November- December” and “three files of transport department”. “What is the connectionIJ CBI also scrutinised files of DDCA. They even planned to seize them but did not do so after Chief Minister raised the issue,” Sisodia said. Interestingly, Sisodia did not take up any queries from media and after finishing his statement, he left the Press conference.
“If the raid was in Chief Minister’s Office it was in his office. One cannot say that clerk’s office was raided and not Chief Minister’s,” said Sisodia, Kejriwal’s most trusted lieutenant. CBI spokesperson Devpreet Singh rebutted the charge, clarifying that the office of the Chief Minister was neither searched nor sealed.
“Blatantly incorrect information is being spread by certain quarters since yesterday to discredit the agency with the intent to obstruct investigation. The CBI neither prevented nor disallowed any person in their movement to the various offices in the Delhi Secretariat, including the CM’s office, except the office chamber of his Secretary, Rajendra Kumar and that of his PA,” she said.
Meanwhile, unfazed by criticism over its action, the CBI on Wednesday continued with its probe and questioned CM’s Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar along with two other accused --- Managing Director of Intelligent Communication System India ltd (ICSIl) RS Kaushi and Director of accused private Endeavour Systems Dinesh Gupta --- for nine hours.
In his tweets, Kejriwal also suggested that Jaitley was worried about Delhi Government’s probe into the functioning of DDCA. Kejriwal also uploaded image of a document listing the files allegedly taken away by CBI from Delhi Secretariat during its day-long raid on Tuesday. Jaitley reacted, “(If) They can tell me what is the specific issue, I can answer it. I can’t answer a vague allegation without any basis.”
The ruling AAP is “not scared” of any enquiry but wants the “independence” of CBI, not one which is a “slave” of the Centre and acts on its instructions, Sisodia said.