Former Delhi Principal Secy Rajendra Kumar granted bail by CBI court in corruption case

Former Delhi Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar was on Tuesday granted bail by a CBI special court in a corruption case over a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh, according to news reports. [caption id=“attachment_2875260” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Rajendra Kumar. PTI[/caption] The special court granted bail to Kumar on the condition that he cannot travel out of Delhi without court’s permission. Kumar, a 1989 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory cadre, was accused of abusing his official position in awarding Delhi government contracts of Rs 9.5 crore to private firm Endeavour Systems Private Limited and was in judicial custody till now. He had also worked as Commissioner in Trade and Taxes department from May 2011 to October 2012. He had allegedly directed development of a software worth over Rs three crore via ESPL. Beside Kumar, the other accused in the case are Intelligent Communication System India Ltd (ICSIL) Managing Director RS Kaushil and former MD GK Nanda, Rajendra Kumar’s aide Ashok Kumar, Endeavour Systems Pvt Ltd directors Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Kumar Gupta, and former VAT Department Assistant Director Tarun Sharma. On 6 July, the Delhi government had suspended Kumar. The suspension came two days after the CBI had arrested him in connection with the corruption case. CBI had also claimed that a forensic test of over 12 voice samples of Kumar point to alleged corruption in award of Delhi government contracts worth over Rs 50 crore to a private firm. The CBI had also conducted searches at six premises — in Delhi, Noida and Agra — including office of Kumar’s Chartered Accountant (CA) in the national capital during which they had claimed to have recovered Rs 28 lakh in cash, an agency official said. The official had said that a forensic report of over 12 voice samples has shown that Rajendra Kumar was allegedly seeking undue favours for the ESPL. Kumar was allegedly sending voice messages instead of phone calls to other accused and some unknown private persons to give details of bribe and modus operandi to commit the offence they all are involved in, the official had added. The arrest of the top Delhi government official had triggered a political storm with the Delhi government accusing the Centre of indulging in “political vendetta” and “paralysing” governance. The CBI had registered a case in December last year alleging that Kumar had abused his official position by “favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders of Delhi government departments”. The charges pressed by the CBI are under sections 120-B of IPC (criminal conspiracy), and 13(2), 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (Criminal conspiracy, criminal misconduct etc) for allegedly favouring the ESPL in bagging five contracts. (With inputs from PTI and IANS)