IAS officer alleges harassment from CBI, seeks VRS

Suspended IAS officer Rajender Kumar accused the CBI of forcing him to implicate Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Kumar said, during interrogation, “he was repeatedly told that (he) would be let free if (he) implicates the chief minister”.

Kumar, who was charge-sheeted in a corruption case, has also sought voluntary retirement claiming harassment by the Centre that follows “totalitarian ways”.

However, the CBI denied the charges. “Making such baseless allegations at this moment is only an attempt to influence the matter which is sub judice,” it said. Kumar, a key aide of Kejriwal, was arrested on charges of abusing his official position to get contracts for Endeavour System Pvt Ltd (ESPL), a company managed by a co-accused on his behalf. The CBI claimed that ESPL received a commission of around Rs 3.3 crore.

In a 26-page letter to Delhi Chief Secretary M M Kutty, Kumar targeted the NDA government saying it “started hating and punishing” him after he went back to the Delhi government to serve as principal secretary to Kejriwal in 2014. Kumar said he did not change, but the “government” had changed.

Claiming that the CBI and the Income Tax Department were sent after him by the Centre, he said that the efforts of the government were meant to mentally harass him to “just give up”.