Kejriwal’s former principal secy Kumar hits out at Jung in blog post

IN A blog post, Rajendra Kumar, former principal secretary to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, has written an open letter to former Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, raking up several issues, including a showcause notice issued to him.

Kumar, an IAS officer chargesheeted in December by the CBI in a graft case, wrote the blog on Sunday — 11 days after he sent a request to avail the voluntary retirement scheme.

In his blog, titled ‘To Sir with Regards’, Kumar did not name Jung, but recounted various incidents that took place during Jung’s tenure, like the removal of a vice-chancellor of a university, Kumar’s first showcause notice and his alleged harassment at the hands of the CBI. Jung resigned on December 22, following which the Centre appointed Anil Baijal L-G.

“After a few weeks of your joining the constitutional post of L-G, you had asked me to send you the personal file of a then V-C of a Delhi Government University. You had specifically mentioned that you require the file containing the complaints against him,” Kumar wrote. He added that since Jung too had served as a V-C of a university prior to being appointed L-G, he may have had differences with the V-C in question.

Kumar added, “...after you saw the file, you called me again and asked me to find out the misconducts of that V-C. I, as a good civil servant, went through the whole case and concluded that there were none. You were unhappy. I later shifted elsewhere and still later found out that this favourite V-C of yours has been forced to proceed on long leave. He could join back only a few days before his retirement.”

In 2014, during the AAP’S 49-day rule, the then Delhi chief secretary, education minister Manish Sisodia and Jung had all recommended an inquiry into allegations of the Delhi Technical University (DTU) V-C using his influence to appoint ineligible candidates as professors and assistant professors in 2012. Jung had asked the V-C to proceed on leave pending inquiry.

In a meeting held in May-june 2014, sources said, Kumar was late to a meeting called by Jung by five minutes. Kumar wrote, “As a special gesture, you also awarded me with my first showcause notice in my career for reaching five minutes late to one of your meetings. How can a person be late for a meeting called by Your Excellency, even if he was delayed due to a stretched meeting by the chief secretary?”

About his arrest and custodial interrogation by CBI in July, 2016, Kumar wrote, “You later met a top officer of MHA and a top officer of CBI and stressed upon them the urgent national interest issue of helping and educating me...then my education started. People visited my house and my office and I was called many times to country’s premier educational and transformational institution...”

Kumar added, “You narrated stories of your attempts to educate me to many other persons of my fraternity and assured them of similar special sessions like mine, if they remained dumb like me.”

Calls, messages and an email sent to Jung Monday remained unanswered.

Rajendra Kumar