Delhi's ACB carries out searches at DCW office in the wake of charges of nepotism

New Delhi: Delhi’s Anti-Corruption Branch on Thursday carried out searches at Delhi Commission for Women office in New Delhi in connection with complaints by a former chief secretary and an ex-chief of the panel. [caption id=“attachment_2748722” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] DCW chief Swati Maliwal. News18[/caption] ACB officials claimed that they had intimated the DCW that they will be coming to collect certain documents regarding the complaints. Former DCW chief Barkha Shukla Singh, an ex-MLA from Congress who was heading the panel till last year, had filed a complaint with ACB recently alleging “nepotism and favouritism” by its current chairperson Swati Maliwal in appointing employees to DCW. She had claimed that several AAP supporters were given plum posts in the women’s panel, an allegation strongly denied by Maliwal. In another complaint, former Delhi Chief Secretary Omesh Sehgal had alleged that Maliwal was misusing her official position by issuing a showcause notice to a club of which he is a member. A woman had claimed that Sehgal had harassed her by bumping into her constantly in the club’s swimming pool. The woman had claimed that she and her husband were suspended from the club after they filed an FIR against Sehgal. DCW had sought a reply from the club on the suspension of the couple’s membership and the club’s failure to forward the woman’s complaint to the local complaints committee. Maliwal could not be reached for her reaction on the ACB searches.