Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on Wednesday suspended a deputy secretary in Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s office and two sub-divisional magistrates on charges of corruption, ANI reported.
Deputy Secretary Prakash Chandra Thakur, sub-divisional magistrate of Vasant Vihar Harshit Jain and Devender Sharma of Vivek Vihar have been suspended.
On Monday, the lieutenant governor had also suspended two assistant engineers with the Delhi Development Authority owing to alleged lapses in the construction of flats for economically weaker sections in the Kalkaji Extension area.
The complaint against Thakur is related to his earlier posting in the revenue department and not the current position in the chief minister’s office, The Hindu quoted an unidentified official as saying.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Delhi chief Adesh Gupta alleged that while the corruption took place, Kejriwal “silently watched the whole show”.
“The Delhi government’s ministers are completely enmeshed in corruption, and now a corruption case involving bureaucrats has also come to light,” he said.
Gupta apparently made a reference to the Enforcement Directorate case of alleged money laundering against Delhi minister Satyendar Jain. The Aam Aadmi Party leader is currently in the central investigative agency’s custody.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that Thakur’s suspension “exposed the hollowness of claims of honest administration” made by Kejriwal, according to The Hindu.
“Chief minister claims zero tolerance on corruption but today a black sheep has been found in his own office, clearly indicating there is no monitoring against corruption in the CM office and the Delhi Secretariat,” he said.
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