Complaint against Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, others referred to district judge

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday referred a complaint, filed against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and others for alleged irregularities in grant of contracts for roads and sewer lines, to the district judge for deciding upon the jurisdiction issue in the matter.

Metropolitan Magistrate Abhilash Malhotra referred the matter to the district and sessions judge, after noting that the ACB had already lodged an FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Cases pertaining to the ACB and under the Act are tried by a special court.

"Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) filed a report stating that Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Gautam Budh Nagar, has informed that there is no threat to the life of the complainant within their jurisdiction. It further stated that jurisdiction of the case will be with the special court," the magistrate said.

"I found merit with the submission. Police has already registered the FIR. Accordingly, the matter is placed before the district and sessions judge on July 3 for further hearing,"
the judge said.

Earlier, the court had asked the police to maintain maximum vigil in the case after the probe agency filed a status report saying there is no threat to the life of complainant Rahul Sharma.

The court had on June 2 directed the additional commissioner of the ACB to assess the threat perception to Sharma once again after he submitted that on May 30 two unidentified motorcycle-borne persons fired gun shots at him when he was travelling in his car along with a cousin.

Advocate V K Anand, the counsel for Sharma, had also filed a plea seeking a status report on the three separate FIRs which were registered by the agency on its own on May 8 in relation to the alleged irregularities in granting contracts.

The court was hearing a complaint filed by Sharma, founder of Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO), seeking a direction to the police to lodge an FIR against Kejriwal, his brother-in-law Surender Bansal, proprietor of a construction firm, and a public servant for alleged irregularities in the grant of contracts for roads and sewer lines in Delhi.

Bansal died last month.

The complaint alleged "deep-rooted corruption" and that no material was actually purchased for executing the projects.

It alleged that documents showing purchase of material were "concocted and forged", and a loss of over Rs 10 crore had been caused to the public exchequer.

The complainant alleged that Bansal operated through several dummy firms to obtain government contracts with the connivance of several senior PWD officials.

These contracts never got executed "whereas shockingly all the payments were cleared under pressure from Kejriwal", he alleged.