Arvind Kejriwal recommended the suspension of Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena. The Delhi chief minister forwarded the primary report on charges of corruption against the chief secretary to the LG, sources said.
According to the sources, Kejriwal has issued directions to Vigilance Minister Atishi to send the report to probe agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate(ED).
The development came a day after Atishi, after initiating a probe into the matter, submitted the 670-page preliminary report to Arvind Kejriwal in connection with the alleged corruption in the acquisition of a piece of land for the Dwarka Expressway project against Naresh Kumar.
According to the report, the probe found that Naresh Kumar unduly benefited a company linked to his son in the land acquisition for the road project.
Atishi, in her report to the CM, also recommended immediate removal the chief secretary, along with Additional Chief Secretary Ashwani Kumar, so that they do not influence the investigation, sources said.
The report also brought out a conspiracy hatched by senior officers of the Vigilance Department, including the chief secretary, to undervalue the scale of the scam against the actual compensation award that would have resulted in a much more illicit gain to the beneficiaries, sources said.
The corruption complaint alleged Naresh Kumar’s involvement in increasing compensation for a land parcel in Bamnoli village to unduly profit from an organisation linked to his son, Karan Chauhan. However, denying the allegation, Delhi Additional Chief Secretary Ashwani Kumar had said on Monday that the claim of links between the chief secretary and the owners of the land acquired for Dwarka Expressway were “false and baseless”.
Terming it a case of character assassination of the chief secretary through false allegations, he said the top official, in fact, had taken action to undo the wrong that happened in this regard when the matter regarding the increased compensation came to light.
Addressing a press conference, Ashwani Kumar said the matter related to land compensation is decided at the ADM and DM levels, not by the chief secretary. “The chief secretary had no role in awarding (the contract) or its arbitration. Rather, he made proactive efforts for action to be taken against any wrongdoing,” he added.
Kumar said the allegations against Naresh Kumar are part of “dirty politics”.