Delhi court grants bail to former deputy secretary in CMO in corruption case

New Delhi: A special court on Tuesday granted bail to former deputy secretary in Delhi Chief Minister’s Office, Tarun Sharma, in a graft case involving CM Arvind Kejriwal’s former principal secretary Rajendra Kumar. [caption id=“attachment_2798466” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. CNN-News18[/caption] Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar granted the relief to Sharma on a personal bond of Rs one lakh and one surety of like amount, saying no purpose would be served by keeping him in custody. The court also put several conditions on the accused and asking him not to influence any witness or tamper with evidence and not to leave the country without the court’s prior permission. The accused had sought bail on the ground of parity with Kumar who was granted the relief by the court on July 26. CBI, however, had opposed his bail plea. The agency had earlier claimed that Endeavour Systems Pvt Ltd (ESPL) was floated by Kumar for the award of government contracts worth over Rs 50 crore. CBI had registered a case against Kumar and others in December last year alleging that the officials had abused their official position by “favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders of Delhi government departments”. It had arrested seven people in this case in which three are already out on bail. The accused have been charged under section 120-B of IPC (criminal conspiracy) and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act relating to criminal misconduct for allegedly favouring ESPL in bagging of five contracts. CBI has alleged that the accused persons had entered into a criminal conspiracy and caused a loss of Rs 12 crore to the Delhi government in award of contracts between 2007 and 2015, and claimed that the officials had taken “undue benefit” of over Rs three crore while awarding the contracts. This is the same case in which the agency had come under scathing criticism from the court which had directed it to return documents sought by the Delhi government seized during 15 December, 2015 search of Kejriwal’s office. Arrest of the top state government official had triggered a political storm with the Delhi government accusing the Centre of indulging in “political vendetta” and “paralysing” governance.