Rajendra Kumar was arrested on July 4 in connection with the graft case.
Rajendra Kumar, Delhi government's suspended Principal Secretary, was granted bail by a special CBI court on Tuesday. While giving the order, the court also rapped the central investigation agency for not being sure about whether they were serious on witnesses allegedly being threatened by Mr Kumar.
Rajendra Kumar had been arrested by the CBI over three weeks ago, over an alleged scam related to awarding government contracts to some companies. The CBI claimed that at least 50 crores worth of contracts had been manipulated by Mr Kumar. Seven others including another official of the Delhi Secretariat, Tarun Sharma, had also been arrested by the CBI.
The CBI had alleged that between 2007-14 Rajendra Kumar was favouring a tech support company, Endeavour Systems Private Ltd in awarding government contracts from various departments like power, water and even urban development.
In its arguments opposing the bail plea, the CBI had claimed that if Mr Kumar is released on bail, he could be threatening witnesses.
But in the order, the court observed, "So far as the CBI counsel's contention is concerned that the accused has threatened witnesses, it will be worthwhile to mention that statement of one witness was recorded by CBI on 1st March 2016 that accused has passed instruction to the officials of DTL not to give evidence against him and the witness felt intimidated. The accused had not been arrested even after recording statement of the said witness for four months, although, investigation of the CBI continued. It only shows that the CBI itself did not consider the threat to be the real one to take immediate action against the accused."
Reacting to the order, Rajendra Kumar's lawyer Sonam Gupta said, "The order only reaffirms our faith in judiciary. Bland allegations of threatening witnesses cannot be ground to curtail a person's liberty."
The Aam Admi Party had lashed out at the centre when Mr Kumar was arrested, pointing out that this was yet another way in which the centre was trying to target the Delhi government. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in a press conference then, had said, the centre was "hatching a conspiracy to paralyse the Delhi government."