Setback for Delhi govt as HC quashes trial court order in Kejriwal secretary raid case

New Delhi: In a big setback for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday quashed a trial court order asking the CBI to return some documents seized during its raid on his Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar's office recently.

CBI had raided the office of Rajendra Kumar on December 15 last year during which entry of officials and staff were banned on third floor from where Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal runs his government.

The CBI was earlier directed by the Patiala House Court to return some documents seized by it during the raids to the Delhi government.

The court passed its order while disposing of an application filed by the Delhi government seeking release of some of the documents seized by the agency during its raid.

Special CBI Judge Ajay Kumar Jain then said, "directions have been given to release the documents".

"The application dated December 21, 2015 filed by the Government of NCT of Delhi is disposed of. CBI is directed to release the documents in terms of para number 8 of the order," the judge said while pronouncing the order.

In its plea, Delhi government had also sought initiation of stringent action against erring officials responsible for raiding "malafidely the office of applicant and seizing documents which cause immense dislocation of work in the office of the applicant."

CBI had earlier told the court that the raid at Kumar's office was not aimed at the Delhi government but against an alleged corrupt officer who had misused his official position.

CBI's prosecutor had also said the documents seized during the raid were relevant for the ongoing probe by the agency and had alleged that the accused in the case was a senior officer who was possessing the documents seized by it, and in all likelihood, he could have tampered with them.

CBI had registered a case against Kumar and others on the allegations that he had abused his official position by "favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders from Delhi government departments".

In all, CBI had carried out searches at 14 places connected with Kumar in Delhi and various locations in Uttar Pradesh Gupta and claimed to have recovered about Rs 16 lakh, including Rs 2.4 lakh in cash. Foreign currency of the value of Rs 3 lakh from the residence of Kumar, CBI had claimed.

The case was lodged for alleged offences under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

With PTI inputs