Minister Atishi submits preliminary report to CM Kejriwal, recommends removal of Delhi’s top officers: Sources

New Delhi [India]: Delhi Vigilance Minister Atishi on Tuesday submitted the preliminary report to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on the alleged involvement of Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar in enhancing an exorbitant compensation award for a land parcel in Bamnoli village in order to provide illicit profits to a company linked to Naresh Kumar’s son, Karan Chauhan, sources said.

According to the sources, the preliminary report, which spans 670 pages, brings out several incriminating facts and states that the “connections and the chronology give the prima facie appearance of complicity” of Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar with DM Southwest Hemant Kumar and landowners in the land acquisition on the Dwarka Expressway.

The report also unveils a conspiracy by senior officers of Delhi’s Vigilance Department including Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to undervalue the scale of the scam as Rs 312 Crore when the actual compensation award would have resulted in an illicit gain of Rs 850 Crore to the beneficiaries, sources added.

This came a day after Ashwani Kumar, Delhi Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue)/Divisional Commissioner said that the allegations of links between Delhi Chief Secretary and owners of a piece of land acquired for the Dwarka Expressway in the national capital are “false and baseless”.

The Delhi Additional Chief Secretary said that the Chief Secretary’s character is being assassinated.

Meanwhile, sources said that based on this inquiry Minister Atishi has recommended an ED probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 into the matter.

She also recommended Disciplinary proceedings against Naresh Kumar (Chief Secretary) and Ashwani Kumar (Divisional Commissioner).

The Vigilance Minister in her Preliminary Report to the Chief Minister also recommended the immediate removal of Naresh Kumar (Chief Secretary) and Ashwani Kumar (Divisional Commissioner) from their respective posts so that they do not influence the probe, sources said further.

“She asked this report be sent to the CBI to provide the agency with a complete view of the facts discovered herein and expanding the scope of the existing CBI inquiry to investigate the complicity of Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar and Divisional Commissioner Ashwani Kumar with Hemant Kumar and the landowners,” they added.

Earlier, the Delhi High Court nullified an award of over Rs 300 crore issued by District Magistrate (DM) Hemant Kumar, who was suspended from his position, in a matter of compensation for land acquisition in Bamnoli village, southwest Delhi on Dwarka Expressway.

Kumar, a 2013-batch Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer, had increased the compensation amount for a 19-acre land acquisition by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) from Rs 41.5 crore to Rs 353.8 crore during his tenure as the district magistrate of southwest Delhi.

The High Court’s decision was based on the observation that the District Magistrate had made this award without giving the NHAI an opportunity to refute the additional documents submitted by the awardee, Subhash Chand Kathuria, a fact admitted by Kathuria’s counsel in court.

The court held that the award was issued in blatant violation of the principles of natural justice and contained patent illegalities.

The implementation of this award would have imposed an additional financial burden of Rs 312.3 crore on the government.