Union finance minister Arun Jaitley has denied the corruption charges in Delhi’s cricket body DDCA, levelled by Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party.
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He had virtually live-tweeted the CBI raid at his Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar’s office in the Delhi Secretariat on Tuesday.
However, Jaitley rubbished the allegations, saying he has had nothing to do with cricket for years.
Jaitely also attacked CMs of West Bengal and Bihar – Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar -questioning their support for Kejriwal “notwithstanding the use of highly objectionable words against the Prime Minister, can it be in consonance with the federal spirit?”
“They searched all files, papers and the office, and questioned people over there; and, when they did not find anything after the day-long raid, the Central Government said it was a raid on the Delhi Principal Secretary’s office”, he alleged. The UPA government seized the opportunity and referred the complaints to the SFIO which investigated all his complaints over a period of time and submitted a detailed report on March 21, 2013. Jaitley made the point that probe conducted by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in 2013 into the alleged improprieties in DDCA had only found “technical and procedural violations”. “The allegation is completely baseless”, the parliamentary affairs minister told reporters outside parliament.
The BJP fielded HRD Minister Smriti Irani to say that the party “resolutely stands behind” the Finance Minister who has an “impeccable” political record.
A day after the CBI conducted a raid in the offices at the Delhi secretariat, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said the files seized from his office have no relation whatsoever to the allegations being probed.
It said another Rs.10.5 lakh was recovered from G.K. Nanda, who the probe agency claimed was a co-accused with Rajendra in a case of corruption.
When the Congress government was in power in Delhi, Kumar served as joint chief electoral officer, special secretary (Commonwealth Games) and the chairman and managing director of Delhi Transco.
Sources in the chief minister’s office today iterated the charge that the CBI sleuths did enter Kejriwal’s office whose rear door faces Rajendra’s office. No personal allegation was ever made against me nor did I ever feel the need of contradicting it.
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After a meeting with his Cabinet colleagues and senior AAP leaders that lasted around two hours, Kejriwal said the Centre will not be able to scare him and that he will continue to fight till his last breath. According to an RTI query, seven other complaints against Kumar are pending before the Delhi government’s Anti-Corruption Bureau.
