Court chides Delhi Police for indecisiveness over plea against Kejriwal

A court chided Delhi Police for its indecisiveness in selecting which of its branches would probe a criminal complaint seeking lodging of an FIR against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and others in the alleged PWD scam.

Metropolitan Magistrate Abhilash Malhotra pulled up the police for its failure in filing an action taken report (ATR) on the complaint in nearly two months.

The court directed the Additional Commissioner of Police of the Delhi government’s Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB), to whom the complaint has been transferred by Delhi Police, to look into the matter and ensure that no further delay is caused in filing the ATR.

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It is clear that due to “indecisiveness” of Delhi Police in choosing the investigating agency, the filing of ATR has been delayed and proceedings stalled, it said.

“The Additional Commissioner of Police and the Assistant Commissioner of Police are directed to look into the matter and ensure that no further delay is caused in filing of the ATR. The report be filed positively on or before the next date that is April 20,” the court said.

It said that a copy of the order be sent to the Additional Commissioner of Police of the ACB for necessary compliance.

The court was hearing a complaint filed by founder of Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO) Rahul Sharma seeking direction to 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.

During the hearing, the court agreed with the submissions of the complainant that initially ATR was sought from the police on February 2 and the matter, which pertains to I P Estate police station, was later marked to Delhi Police’s Economic Offence Wing (EOW).

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The complainant said the EOW sought various opportunity to file ATR and instead of filing the report, it transferred the matter to the ACB. An ACB official informed the court that he has received the case file on March 21 and sought three weeks’ time to file the ATR.

Advocate Kislay Pandey, who filed the plea on behalf of the complainant, had alleged “deep-rooted corruption” and said the documents showed no material was actually purchased for executing the projects.