India: Kejriwal says document raid was meant to intimidate Delhi government

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said that India’s premier investigating agency seized documents that had “no relation” to the allegations being probed against Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seized files containing “cabinet decisions” during its daylong raid, the Delhi government alleged on Wednesday with Kejriwal claiming that a file relating to Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) was scrutinised, drawing a rebuttal by the agency and the Centre.

The CBI on Tuesday said it raided 14 places in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, including the house of Kejriwal’s secretary, after obtaining warrants from a court. The agency registered a case against Kumar on the allegation of abusing his official position in awarding contracts from the city government to a private firm.

The chief minister also launched a fresh attack on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, saying he had “misled” Parliament by saying that the CBI did not raid the Chief Minister’s office.

“CBI kept reading DDCA file in my office. They wud HV seized it. But after my media briefing, they left it. Not clear if they took a copy. Docs seized from my office.No relation to allegations being probed. Item 7-file movement register of last one month,” he said in a series of tweets.

Addressing a press conference, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia asked why the CBI had allegedly seized “file movement register of November-December” and “three files of transport department”.

“What is the connection? 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.

In his tweets, Kejriwal also suggested that Jaitley was worried about Delhi government’s probe into the functioning of DDCA. Jaitley had on Tuesday dismissed the allegations against him as “rubbish”.

Kejriwal’s AAM Aadmi Party (AAP) alleges that there were financial irregularities when Jaitley was the president of Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) for 13 years till December, 2013.

Kejriwal also uploaded image of a document listing the files allegedly taken away by CBI from Delhi Secretariat during its daylong raid on Tuesday.

The chief minister dismissed as a “lie” the CBI and the government’s assertion that the raids targeted Kejriwal’s Principal Secretary Rajender Kumar, who has been accused of corruption. Declaring that he would not “spare his own son if he were corrupt”, Kejriwal said the real reason for the raid was to search his offices for a file linked to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

“It has become important for me to tell why the CBI raided the chief minister’s office. The CBI had come to search for DDCA files which have Arun Jaitley’s name, as he was the former President of DDCA and probe is on in the case. I want to tell Modi ji. You may have scared others but I am not going to be scared of CBI, You don’t know what I am made of,” Kejriwal said Wednesday.

Reacting to Kejriwal, Jaitley said, “his morning statement yesterday appeared to be prima facie factually incorrect but his evening statement is absolutely rubbish. I don’t think I should comment on rubbish. The office of the chief minister of Delhi has not been raided. The raid has nothing to do with Arvind Kejriwal or his tenure as chief minister. The search is against an officer.”

The man at the centre of a major flashpoint between Kejriwal and the Centre is senior bureaucrat Kumar, who has worked for the chief minister even in his past 49-day stint. Kumar, the principal secretary to the chief minister, has been accused of corruption in the purchase of computers. He has been accused of “setting up” various companies to give work contracts without tenders, at a huge loss to the Delhi government.

In a statement issued, the CBI has said, “we have registered a case against Rajendra Kumar, Secretary to CM Delhi on the allegation of abusing his official position by favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders from Delhi government departments.” CBI claims it has found about Rs1.3 million (Dh71,580) cash in raids. The agency said Rs300,000 in foreign currency and Rs240,000 cash was found from Rajender Kumar’s home.

Meanwhile, AAP leader Deepak Bajpai was quick to call the prime minister a dictator.

“It is clear, after failing to politically deal with us, now Modi has declared emergency. People of the country will stand up and respond,” Bajpai said.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also expressed her support to Kejriwal saying she was “too shocked” to hear of the raid.

In reaction, the Bharatiya Janata Party described Kejriwal’s words against the prime minister “abominable” and said he owed an unqualified apology to Modi. Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu said it was now becoming a trend to blame the prime minister for everything.

“It has become a fashion for Delhi chief minister to quarrel with central government to take PM’s name for everything. Today, the CBI is an independent organisation. Gone are the days of the Congress when CBI used to be misused. How can you criticise the Government of India and the Prime Minister? Prime Minster Modi has nothing to do with this,” Naidu said.

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar also hit out at Kejriwal.

“Kejriwal’s reaction on CBI raid is atrocious. CBI raids only when they receive a credible complaint and they want to investigate the corruption matter. And instead of immediately taking action against his officials, he is accusing PM. This is the worst kind of politics. AAP came into existence on plank of anticorruption movement, but now Kejriwal is supporting corruption,” Javadekar said.