Delhi Vigilance Minister Atishi, on Tuesday, recommended the immediate removal of Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar and another senior bureaucrat, Ashwani Kumar, to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in connection with an alleged land scam.
In her report, Atishi alleged the involvement of the Chief Secretary in enhancing the compensation for a piece of land in Bamnoli village, acquired by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for the Dwarka Expressway, in order to provide illicit profits to a company linked to his son, Karan Chauhan.
The preliminary report, which runs into 670 pages, stated that the “connections and the chronology give the appearance of complicity” of Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar with District Magistrate (South West) Hemant Kumar and landowners in the land acquisition on the Dwarka Expressway.
According to sources, 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.
Atishi stated in her report that it was obvious that Naresh Kumar’s son had business connections with the landowners who were benefiting. The events since Naresh Kumar became Chief Secretary suggest that he might have used his power to increase compensation for the beneficiaries linked to his son’s business.
The report also alleges that Divisional Commissioner Ashwani Kumar repeatedly refused to provide files on this matter, which appeared suspicious and raised questions about his complicity.
In her report, Atishi urged that files related to this matter be seized from them, to prevent any “tampering or destruction of evidence”. The Delhi minister also recommended disciplinary proceedings against Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar and Divisional Commissioner Ashwani Kumar.
She has also asked the report to be sent to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) so that the agency has a complete review of the facts discovered to add to the existing CBI inquiry.
