A forensic test of over 12 voice samples of Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal's suspended Principal Secretary, Rajendra Kumar point to alleged corruption in awarding Delhi government contracts worth over Rs 50 crore to a private firm, the CBI claimed on Friday.
The CBI also conducted searches at six premises–in Delhi, Noida and Agra–including the office of Kumar's Chartered Accountant (CA) in the national capital, during which they claimed to have recovered Rs 28 lakh in cash, an agency official said.
Kumar and four others were arrested by the CBI on Monday for allegedly showing undue favours to Endeavours System Pvt Ltd (ESPL).
The other accused are Tarun Sharma, Deputy Secretary in Kejriwal's office, Ashok Kumar, a former Delhi government employee considered as a close aide of Rajendra Kumar, besides the owners of ESPL–Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Gupta.
Kumar had allegedly sent voice messages instead of phone calls to the other accused and in certain cases, some unknown private persons were sent to give details of the bribe, the official added.
The CBI had cross-verified the 12 voice samples with the audio tape carrying Kumar's voice during the ongoing investigation, the official informed.
The agency official claimed that a substantial amount of bribe in the case was transferred to the ESPL through a little-known publishing house in Agra. It is alleged that the bribe collected by the accused was transferred in the garb of Commission by the publishing house to ESPL, the official said.
The arrest of the top Delhi government official had triggered a political storm with the Delhi government accusing the Centre of indulging in “political vendetta” and “paralysing” governance.
The CBI had registered a case in December last year alleging that Kumar had abused his official position by “favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders of Delhi government departments”.
The charges pressed by the CBI are under sections 120-B of IPC (criminal conspiracy), and 13(2), 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (Criminal conspiracy, criminal misconduct etc) for allegedly favouring the ESPL in bagging five contracts.
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