CBI probing if Kumar twisted rules to help firm
THE AGENCY IS EXAMINING KUMAR’S ALLEGED “CLOSE LINKS WITH THE BENEFICIARY FIRM”
NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raids in Delhi that sparked a political storm on Tuesday were based on its First Information Report (FIR) against senior bureaucrat Rajendra Kumar for allegedly abusing his official position and granting favours to a private firm in bagging state government contracts.
The agency is examining Kumar’s alleged “close links with the beneficiary firm”. Two of the directors named in the FIR were reportedly old acquaintances of Kumar. CBI is investigating “if there was any quid pro quo”, a senior CBI official told HT.
“As per the FIR, there were at least five times from 2007 to 2014 when the private firm bagged five contracts totaling about ₹9.5 crore due to alleged favours granted by the accused,” he said.
“In all the instances, including cases when the firm was awarded contracts without issuance of tenders, the accused was seen as the driving force behind ensuring the contracts went to the firm whose management he was reportedly close to,” said the official. “The probe could unearth more irregularities and the CBI may file at least four more cases as part of the probe.”
Agency sources told HT that investigators found foreign currency worth over ₹3 lakh, cash worth about ₹2.3 lakh and documents pertaining to three immovable assets at Kumar’s south Delhi residence while the officials denied reports the agency searched chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s office.
“The CBI searches were against IAS officer Rajendra Kumar who is being probed for his alleged favours given over the last few years to a private company in getting tenders from Delhi government departments,” he said.
He said, “Our searches were done after getting search warrants from a city court. The court grant ed our requests after going through the facts of the case and the FIR A lot of incriminating documents were recovered, whose details will be submitted to the court as part of the search-cum-seizure memo.”
Agency teams conducted search operations at 14 loca tions in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh including at Kumar’s office at the Delhi Secretariat and his residence at New Friends’ Colony (East) in south Delhi, as part of the case probe with search war rants, said the source.
Officials also allegedly found cash worth ₹10.5 lakh from the pos session of co-accused GK Nanda “More individuals will be ques tioned, arrests may be made,” said the source.
Another CBI source said Kumar didn’t cooperate initially when investigators sought his help in accessing his email accounts. He was allowed to go late on Tuesday night after questioning.
“The agency wants to access Kumar’s email accounts that we suspect may contain incriminat ing documents pertaining to the case,” he said.
The FIR, which was registered on Monday, also named as accused — the private firm Endeavour Systems Private Limited, its direc tors Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Kumar Gupta. It also named three former and serving senior officers of a Public Sector Undertaking (Intelligent Communication System India Limited) that was not named itself. The three officers are — ex-managing directors AK Duggal, GK Nanda and managing director RS Kaushik.