The raids and the subsequent probe are primarly aimed at “destabilising” the Delhi government, senior leader Ashutosh told reporters at a press conference here.
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The Aam Aadmi Party today termed as “farce” CBI’s contention that it needs the documents seized during a raid at the Delhi Secretariat and suggested that the agency has put forth its arguments at the behest of the “Prime Minister’s Office”.
“It is submitted that at the initial stage of investigation relevancy of the documents cannot be disclosed even if known to the investigation agency as it can do harm to the ongoing investigation”, the CBI said. The high court bench of Justice P S Teji had Thursday issued a notice to the government on a plea filed by the CBI challenging the order of a special court to release the documents seized during a raid on Delhi Secretariat on December 15, 2015.
The Delhi government accused the CBI of “miserably” failing to show relevance of documents it seized from the office of Rajendra Kumar, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, in a reply filed before Delhi High Court Friday.
He had earlier held Prime Minister Narendra Modi responsible for the action and said it was meant to target him and not his principal secretary.
Yesterday, the High Court refrained from passing an order on CBI’s plea seeking stay of a trial court’s order and had listed the matter for further consideration on January 25. The CBI also argued on the grounds that the impugned order would give the government undue advantage and that the judge has erroneously observed the investigation to be “unfair and arbitary abuse of the CBI’s powers”. Quoting the CBI manual, the judge had pointed out there should not be any indiscriminate seizure of documents in any case and investigating officer should seize and requisition the record only if these are essential for investigation.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said the documents seized from the office of Rajendra Kumar “prima facie reflect criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct and abuse of official position by the accused persons”.
The Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had in the past too called the CBI raid of December 16 “politically motivated” and sought an apology from the prime minister for it, saying it was directed at Kejriwal’s office. Now the agency will have to respond to the Delhi government’s reply by Saturday. “File your reply today and I will decide it finally”.
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“CBI has thrown to winds all procedure safeguards while conducting raid… which it had blatantly violated the provision of its CBI manual which is binding in nature and have statutory force”, it added.
