Kejriwal’s ex-principal secy, 6 others sent to 1-day judicial custody

A Delhi court on Sunday sent Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s former Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar and six others, arrested in an alleged corruption case, to one day’s judicial custody.

The order was passed by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Shunali Gupta.

Kumar, a 1989-batch IAS officer from the UT cadre, Deputy Secretary in Kejriwal’s office Tarun Sharma, Kumar’s close aide Ashok Kumar and owners of a private firm, Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Kumar Gupta, arrested in the case, were remanded in judicial custody till Monday.

It also sent RS Kaushik and his predecessor GK Nanda, present and former Managing Directors of a PSU, respectively, to judicial custody till Monday. It has asked all seven accused to be produced before the special CBI court on Monday, which will consider the agency’s plea for their police remand.

“Earlier, the police custody order for five accused was passed by the designated CBI court. The application for the extension of their police custody and another application for the police custody of two accused, who were arrested yesterday, will be considered the designated court itself. Meanwhile, all seven accused be sent to one day’s judicial custody,” the court said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has alleged in court that Kumar, an “influential” officer, was intimidating witnesses. According to CBI, the five accused arrested earlier were showing undue favours to Endeavour Systems Pvt Ltd (ESPL), a private firm allegedly floated by Kumar, in award of government contracts worth over Rs 50 crore.

The CBI had registered a case against Kumar and others in December last year, alleging that the officer had abused his official position by “favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders of Delhi government departments”.

Kaushik and Nanda were arrested as they were allegedly evasive during their questioning. The CBI has also claimed that the duo had been intimidating some of the officers whom the agency had been calling for questioning in the case.

During the hearing, the CBI moved an application for further police remand of three days’ for the five accused arrested earlier and a separate plea seeking three days’ police custody of the two accused arrested yesterday.

In the application, the CBI submitted that their custody was required as it wanted to confront the accused arrested earlier with those nabbed on Saturday.