PWD scam: Delhi Police files status report on plea against Arvind Kejriwal

NEW DELHI (INDIA): The Delhi Police today filed its status report before a court here in connection with its enquiry into a criminal complaint filed against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his brother-in-law and a government official in the alleged PWD scam.nnThe report said that the enquiry was in progress into the allegations of irregularities in granting of contracts for the roads and sewer lines here and sought time to conclude it.nnDelhi Police’s Economic Offence Wing (EOW) filed the report before Metropolitan Magistrate Abhilash Malhotra, who was on leave today. Now the matter will come up for hearing on March 8.nnThe court was hearing the complaint 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 grant of the contracts for the roads and the sewer lines in the city.nnThe police report said that during the course of enquiry, notices were served to Bansal and two others – Kamal Singh and Pawan Kumar – for want of information/documents and they have joined the enquiry and sought time to furnish the details.nn”After obtaining the reply from the concerned persons the same will be analysed with the documents supplied by the PWD department. Further enquiry is in progress. It is requested some more time may be given to finalise the enquiry,” said the report, filed in pursuance of the court’s direction.nnThe court had earlier directed Delhi Government’s Public Works Department to preserve the records relating to award of the contract to Bansal’s firm.nnThe plea was filed by the founder of Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO), in which Kejriwal, Bansal and the public servant were accused of corruption and an FIR was sought to be lodged against them for alleged offences including cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy under the IPC.nnAdvocate Kislay Pandey, who filed the plea on behalf of the complainant, has alleged “deep-rooted corruption” and said the documents showed no material was actually purchased for executing the projects.nnThe complainant alleged documents showing purchase of material were “concocted and forged”, and a loss of over Rs 10 crore had been caused to the public exchequer.nnThe plea demanded that the role of the Delhi Chief Minister be investigated as he had allegedly caused substantive gains to Bansal and others by using his influence.nnThe complainant alleged that Bansal operated through several dummy firms to obtain the government contracts in connivance with several senior PWD officials. These contracts never got executed “whereas shockingly all the payments were cleared under the pressure from Kejriwal”.nn nnSource: Press Trust of India