ACB team visits DCW office, submits questionnaire to Swati Maliwal

NEW DELHI: A team from Anti-corruption Branch on Wednesday visited the Delhi Commission for Women office to collect some documents and also submit a questionnaire to the women’s panel chief Swati Maliwal in connection with its probe into an alleged recruitment scam in the DCW.

“It was a routine visit by our team to collect some documents that were not there with us,” said a senior ACB officer.

Meanwhile, DCW alleged that the ACB team furnished a 11-point questionnaire and refused to give them time to submit answers. “Maliwal requested the ACB officials that she will cooperate with the investigation and sought time to furnish the response as the information sought is voluminous. However, the officials refused to provide her time and insisted that the same be provided then and there,” a DCW spokesperson alleged.

They alleged that due to the pressure created by the ACB sleuths, “the entire functioning of the Commission suffered and several crucial summons including the one to VC of DU on Pinjra Tod complaint had to be postponed”. Later, in the evening, the ACB officials relented and gave time of two days to Maliwal to furnish her reply, the spokesperson added.

The ACB has been probing the matter for the last few months and based on the questioning of Maliwal’s staff, it was found that due procedure “was not followed in appointments” and an FIR under relevant section of Prevention of Corruption Act and Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust) and 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) of the IPC was registered against her.

The ACB had taken up the probe on a complaint by former DCW chief Barkha Shukla Singh, who alleged that several AAP supporters were given plum posts in the women’s panel.