The CBI said that it has registered a case against Kumar and others on allegations against the officer that he abused his official position by “favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders from Delhi government departments”.
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Aam Aadmi Party workers from here and neighbouring Thane district today protested against the CBI raid at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s office building in Delhi, calling it a “blatant misuse” of the agency by Centre.
The CBI has said that seizures during the searches at all 14 places were in the presence of independent witnesses as per procedure laid down by the law. If the concept of federalism, leave alone the “co-operative federalism” that Modi wants, is to work in India, relationships between political opponents must remain within the boundaries of civilised behaviour, and faith in public institutions like the CBI needs to be rebuilt.
“If the raid was in Chief Minister’s office it was in his office”.
This led to a odd drama being played out at the Delhi secretariat with both Kumar and Dharam Pal, who had been appointed by the Centre to replace Kumar, acting as home secretary for a few days.
“You have been successful in scaring people off with the help of CBI raids you won’t be able to scare Kejriwal off”, the Delhi Chief Minister said. CBI spokesman Devpreet Singh said searches were conducted with warrants, and that Kejriwal’s office was not searched.
She claimed that blatantly incorrect information is being spread by certain quarters to discredit the agency with the intent to obstruct investigation. The other question which also remains is whether the investigating agencies will be able to conduct a fair investigation in the DDCA, in which the high and mighty are allegedly involved. Even if BJP wasn’t aware of the impending raids at Kejriwal’s office, comments being made by its ministers and spokespersons are definitely not helping their cause. “CBI is an autonomous body, Central Govt does not interfere with its functioning at all”, he said.
Critics have also questioned the CBI for the manner in which the case has been dealt with.
Responding to Kejriwal, Jaitley, in his blog post on Facebook, clarified that he has not been associated with the DDCA since 2013 and that the Delhi CM can’t drag him into a controversy by raking up facts from 2014 and 2015.
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“(But) this is not the voice of CBI’s independence but the voice of its master”, he said, adding the Central Bureau of Investigation was being manipulated by the ruling party.
