Court sends Kejriwal's ex-PS, 6 others to one day's judicial custody

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Sunday sent Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's former Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar and six others, arrested in an alleged corruption case, to one day's judicial custody (JC).

The order was passed by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Shunali Gupta.

Kumar, a 1989 batch IAS oficer from the UT cadre, Deputy Secretary in Kejriwal's office Tarun Sharma, Kumar's close aide Ashok Kumar and owners of a private firm, Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Kumar Gupta, arrested in the case, were remanded in JC till tomorrow.

It also sent R S Kaushik and his predecessor G K Nanda, present and former Managing Directors of a PSU respectively, to JC till tomorrow, asking all the seven accused to be produced before the special CBI court tomorrow which will consider the agency's plea for their police remand.

"Earlier, the police custody order for five accused was passed by the designated CBI court. The application for the extension of their police custody and another application for the police custody of two accused who were arrested yesterday will be considered the designated court itself.

"Meanwhile, all the seven accused be sent to one day's judicial custody," the court said.

CBI has alleged in court that Kumar, an "influential" officer, was intimidating witnesses.

According to CBI, the five accused arrested earlier were showing undue favours to Endeavour Systems Pvt Ltd (ESPL), a private firm allegedly floated by Kumar, in award of government contracts worth over Rs 50 crore.

CBI had registered a case against Kumar and others in December last year alleging that the officer had abused his official position by "favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders of Delhi government departments".

Kaushik and Nanda, present and former Managing Directors of Intelligent Communication Systems India Ltd (ICSIL), a Delhi government undertaking which is a joint venture of Telecommunication Consultants India Ltd (TCIL) and Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation, were arrested as they were allegedly evasive during their questioning.

CBI has also claimed that the duo had been intimidating some of the officers whom the agency had been calling for questioning in the case.