Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is often angry, but on Tuesday he was livid. His office in the morning was sealed and raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation, in what the agency claimed was an investigation into corruption allegations leveled at Delhi's principal secretary. But Kejriwal said he wasn't buying this argument. Instead, the chief minister said it had much more to do with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

In a press conference on Tuesday evening, Kejriwal – who has built his political career on crusading against corruption – found himself in the unlikely position of having to rail against an investigation agency looking into an allegedly corrupt bureaucrat. Well aware of the way this would be perceived, Kejriwal used the press conference to explain why the raids weren't really targeted at Rajendra Kumar, Delhi's principal secretary.

Kumar has been accused of setting up companies that would directly be commissioned to do government work, without going through the proper tender process. Kejriwal argued that, even if this were the case, there was no reason for the CBI to investigate just his office.

"If Rajendra Kumar gave wrong tenders as VAT commissioner, then that file will be with the VAT department. If Rajendra Kumar did wrong as the education secretary, then the CBI should have raided the education department," he said. "They didn't raid those departments. They only shut the chief minister's office to look at my files."

He then offered his theory for why the CBI wanted to have a look at his files: an investigation into corruption in the Delhi & District Cricket Administration, including allegations against finance minister Arun Jaitley. "A Commission of Inquiry is going to be set up," Kejriwal said. "They had come looking for Arun Jaitley's files."

The CBI, earlier in the day, put out a statement denying any political motivations in its actions, and said "false propaganda should not be used to impede our investigation".

Questions about Jaitley's time as president of the DDCA, a post he held for 13 years, are not new. Concerns about the conduct within the body were serious enough to prompt cricketer Virender Sehwag to quit the Delhi team for the Ranji Trophy in 2009, citing corruption and nepotism.

In November, the Delhi government also set up a three-member committee to look into allegations of corruption within the DDCA. This panel had been set up after two former cricketers, Bishan Singh Bedi and Kirti Azad, the latter a Member of Parliament from the Jaitley's own party, the BJP, had complained about corruption within the organisation. Azad had even formally requested the Delhi Police to register a First Information Report against Jaitley for the alleged flouting of rules during his tenure.

The Caravan reported on the allegations in a profile of Arun Jaitley earlier this year.
In May 2012, Azad wrote a letter of complaint about the “accounting mess” in the DDCA to RPN Singh, then minister of state for corporate affairs. “The accounts are blatantly falsified and false bills are shown to account for Rs 30 crore every year,” he wrote. He alleged financial fraud, illegal payments to members without proper clearances and illegal procurement without tenders. He followed this up with a letter to Jaitley that July, in which he wrote, “I wish to request you not to make snide remarks about me or wife in the manipulated leaks.”

In fact the allegations become even more problematic now that Jaitley is finance minister, because the DDCA is currently being investigated by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office, which has listed 23 instances of violations by the body during Jaitley's tenure.

As Outlook put it earlier this year, "the SFIO report, a copy of which is in the possession of Outlook, shows that no effort was made to cover up the irregularities. The only possible explanation is that the DDCA was confident of political patronage and consequent immunity from investigation and prosecution. Of course, no further action was initiated on the damning report."