Kejri aide’s custody extended till July 27

Delhi chief minister’s former principal secretary Rajendra Kumar and six others, arrested in an alleged corruption case, were on Tuesday sent to judicial custody till July 27 by a special court after the CBI submitted that they were not required for further

investigation. Kumar also moved a bail application before court, saying he is no more required for the investigation. The court sought reply from the probe agency on his plea and fixed it for hearing on July 21. Special CBI judge Arvind Kumar sent Kumar, a 1989 batch IAS officer of UT cadre, Tarun Sharma, former deputy secretary in Kejriwal’s office, Kumar’s close aide Ashok Kumar and owners of a private firm, Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Kumar Gupta, to the jail after they were produced from the CBI custody.

The court also sent R. S. Kaushik and his predecessor G. K. Nanda, present and former managing directors of a PSU respectively, to judicial custody till July 27.

While producing them, the CBI told the court that their custodial interrogation was over and they be sent to the judicial custody. After CBI submitted that the accused were not required for custodial interrogation, senior advocate Mohit Mathur, who appeared for Kumar, moved the bail plea on his behalf. The CBI told the court that it needed time to reply to the plea, after which the court put up the matter for July 21.

According to CBI, the five accused were allegedly showing undue favours to Endeavour Systems Pvt Ltd ( ESPL), a private firm which the agency alleged was floated by Kumar, in the award of government contracts worth over ` 50 crore.

CBI had registered a case against Kumar and others in December last year.