New Delhi: Seeking voluntary retirement a month after being charge sheeted by CBI in an alleged graft case, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's former principal secretary Rajendra Kumar has alleged that he was repeatedly told by the interrogators to implicate the CM.
In his letter to Delhi chief secretary, Kumar, a 1989 batch IAS officer, said he has never earlier experienced the kind of such utter "disregard" for system, process, protocol, transparency and decency which he had experienced first-hand in his own case.
Kumar, referring to the CBI probe in the graft case against him, alleged, "I was repeatedly told that I would be let free if I implicate chief minister Arvind Kejriwal" and added that "may be this was the reason for the agency to go to such extraordinary length".
"The CBI has beaten up dozens of people to force them to implicate me and the chief minister. Some of them sustained permanent major injuries," Kumar alleged.
The officer, who was principal secretary to the chief minister at the time of his arrest in July and subsequently suspended, claimed his troubles started soon after he was invited by Kejriwal to work with him in December 2013.
Why PM scared of us: Kejriwal
Reacting to the development, Kejriwal attacked prime minister Narendra Modi, saying "why the PM is so scared of us".
"CBI raids my office, pressurises officer to implicate me. CBI raids Satyendar Jain's office. Why are you so so scared of us Modi Ji? Chill (sic)," Kejriwal alleged in a tweet.
CBI had last month filed a charge sheet against Kumar for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery under Indian Penal Code besides provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act along with eight others and Endeavour Systems private Limited.
It was alleged by CBI in the FIR that the accused persons had entered into a criminal conspiracy and caused a loss of Rs 12 crore to the Delhi Government in award of contracts between 2007 and 2015. The FIR had also claimed that the officials had taken "undue benefit" of over Rs 3 crore while awarding the contract.
Allegations baseless: CBI
The CBI on Thursday strongly refuted the charges by Rajendra Kumar, saying making such "absolutely baseless allegations" after filing of charge sheet "is only an attempt to influence the matter which is sub-judice".
"Central Bureau of Investigation strongly denies statement/news item published/telecast in certain sections of the media being attributed to Shri Rajender Kumar, IAS," CBI Spokesperson R.K. Gaur said.
Gaur said the accused had the opportunity to bring before the court any instance of alleged physical assault when they were produced before judge but no such allegation was made.
"No such allegation was made at the relevant time, except one person, who also filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court, but had to withdraw the same after the court observed that he is trying to spoil the system and scaring away the probe agency which was widely reported in the media on May 3, 2016," he said.