Arvind Kejriwal's relative, arrested in connection with alleged PWD scam, sent to one-day judicial custody

New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s relative Vinay Bansal, arrested in connection with an alleged scam in the Public Works Department (PWD), was on Thursday remanded to one-day judicial custody by a Delhi court which refused the Anti-Corruption Branch’s plea seeking three-day police custody after he fainted before it. Duty Metropolitan Magistrate Neeti Suri Mishra rejected the ACB’s application for three-day police remand of Bansal, a nephew of Kejriwal, saying he was not medically fit. The magistrate said that the accused fainted in the court during the arguments and according to his medical report, his blood pressure is on the higher side. [caption id=“attachment_4434329” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Arvind Kejriwal. AFP[/caption] “Since the medical condition of the accused is not good, I do not consider it appropriate to send him to police custody today. The application of the investigating officer (IO) is accordingly dismissed,” the magistrate said. In a court room packed with lawyers and mediapersons, Bansal fainted during the hearing and a stretcher was brought to take him to the ambulance stationed outside the court premises. The proceedings were halted for a few minutes. Bansal, who was produced before the court at 4.25 pm, was taken to the Aruna Asaf Ali Hospital nearby in the CAT ambulance. The court directed the IO to inform the Tihar Jail superintendent to ask the staff concerned to be present at the hospital for taking his custody from the IO. Seeking three-day remand, public prosecutor Balbir Singh argued that Bansal’s custodial interrogation was necessary for digging out the true factual position in the case. Opposing the remand, Bansal’s counsel BS Joon said the FIR was lodged in 2017 and since then no evidence has been found against the accused. He said the FIR has wrongly levelled allegations under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act which are meant for public servants and Bansal was not one. The court, after hearing the arguments, sent him to one-day judicial custody, directing that he be produced before it on Friday. Bansal, who is the son of Kejriwal’s late brother-in-law Surender Bansal, was arrested this morning by the ACB. Three FIRs, including one against a company run by the chief minister’s brother-in-law Surender Bansal, were registered by the ACB in this case on 9 May last year. Three companies, including Renu Constructions (owned by Bansal, Kamal Singh and Pawan Kumar), were named in the FIRs. In a complaint, Rahul Sharma, the founder of Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO), had alleged that Kejriwal and PWD minister Satyendra Jain misused their office for grant of contracts to Bansal. However, they were not named in the FIR. The RACO, an organisation which claims to monitor construction projects in the national capital, had alleged that a firm linked to Bansal was involved in financial irregularities in building a drainage system in north-west Delhi. It was also alleged that the bills sent to the Public Works Department (PWD) for unfinished works were “false and fabricated”.