New Delhi: Perturbed over the CBI raids at the office of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's principal secretary, Delhi government today charged the probe agency with conducting the searches under "undue political pressure" and "malafidely intruding" in its working.
The AAP government, in its submission before Delhi High Court, also accused the CBI of raiding the office of Rajendra Kumar, located next to the Chief Minister's office in the Delhi Secretariat, in "unprecedented haste" and "indiscriminately" seizing documents, an act which smacked of "vindictiveness and arbitrariness".
Opposing the CBI's plea seeking stay and quashing of a trial court's direction to return some documents seized by it during the December 15, 2015 raid, the AAP government said "CBI has filed the frivolous, baseless, vexatious and merit less petition with obtuse motives and the same is liable to be dismissed with heavy cost."
The Delhi government's affidavit, which was filed after Justice PS Teji sought their stand on the CBI's petition, said the raid at Delhi Secretariat was "not only devoid of merit but also smacked of vindictiveness and arbitrariness".
"In the instant case, CBI proceeded and acted with unprecedented haste for the obvious obtuse reason under undue political pressure in as much as CBI failed to requisition the relevant files to verify the allegation, at first instance from Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of the concerned department which were under scanner in FIR/RC (regular case).
"If CBI was to follow the rules, law and laid down statutory procedures and guidelines, then there was absolutely no need to raid at the said premises and much less seize indiscriminately the documents unrelated to the case," the 38- page reply, filed through Delhi government's senior standing counsel Rahul Mehra and standing counsel Richa Kapoor, said.
They said the petition filed by the CBI was an "abuse of process of law, not maintainable and is liable to be dismissed at the threshold".
The trial court's special judge on January 20 had also castigated the CBI for flouting its own manual by seizing documents without showing how they were related to the alleged graft case against Mr Kumar.
The CBI, in its petition, had claimed that the Special CBI Judge had failed to appreciate that the Delhi government has already obtained photocopies of the documents seized and thus the order of returning the documents was "wholly misconceived".
The AAP government, in its submission before Delhi High Court, also accused the CBI of raiding the office of Rajendra Kumar, located next to the Chief Minister's office in the Delhi Secretariat, in "unprecedented haste" and "indiscriminately" seizing documents, an act which smacked of "vindictiveness and arbitrariness".
Opposing the CBI's plea seeking stay and quashing of a trial court's direction to return some documents seized by it during the December 15, 2015 raid, the AAP government said "CBI has filed the frivolous, baseless, vexatious and merit less petition with obtuse motives and the same is liable to be dismissed with heavy cost."
"In the instant case, CBI proceeded and acted with unprecedented haste for the obvious obtuse reason under undue political pressure in as much as CBI failed to requisition the relevant files to verify the allegation, at first instance from Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of the concerned department which were under scanner in FIR/RC (regular case).
Advertisement
They said the petition filed by the CBI was an "abuse of process of law, not maintainable and is liable to be dismissed at the threshold".
Advertisement
The CBI, in its petition, had claimed that the Special CBI Judge had failed to appreciate that the Delhi government has already obtained photocopies of the documents seized and thus the order of returning the documents was "wholly misconceived".
Advertisement
COMMENTS
Advertisement
"There's Anger Over CBI Raid, People Joining AAP": Arvind Kejriwal "CBI Asked From Above To Harass Us": Arvind Kejriwal On Raids On His Deputy Manish Sisodia's "Work Praised In US's Biggest Paper, Centre Sent CBI Gift": Arvind Kejriwal 3 Days After Big Order On Deposits With SBI And PNB, Karnataka Hits Pause How Extreme Weather Is Leading To Rise In Child Marriages In Pakistan Monkeypox Cases Rising: How Worried Should You Be - 10 Points "Too Many Dead": Gaza Undertakers Stacking "Graves On Top Of Graves" Musk's X Ordered To Pay Rs 5 Crore To Former Employee Over Unfair Dismissal UK To Fund Master's Scholarships For Uttarakhand Students Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.