Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has sent to Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena the vigilance minister’s report accusing chief secretary Naresh Kumar of using his position to enable a “lucrative collaboration” between a company in which his son is a partner and the ILBS, government sources said on Saturday. The report was submitted to Kejriwal by vigilance minister Atishi on Friday.
The report has recommended Kumar’s suspension and a CBI investigation into the matter. Kumar has already denied any wrongdoing and alleged that “mudslinging” was being done by people with “vested interests” against whom vigilance action was taken for corruption.
On Saturday, the vigilance minister submitted another report to the chief minister that alleged “a clear attempt to destroy evidence, erase the tracks and prevent public scrutiny of the startling irregularities”. No immediate reaction was available from the chief secretary on the latest report of the vigilance minister.
The minister, in the fresh report, also alleged that “multiple web-posts” related to alleged irregularities between a private technology company (Metamix Technologies) and the ILBS were deleted within 24 hours of her submitting a report to the chief minister (on Friday) on the issue.
Atishi in her report claimed that the profile of the chief secretary’s son was deleted from LinkedIn while the official website of the technology company and its LinkedIn profile had also been taken down. The company, MetaNix, in a statement termed the allegations of destroying records as “lies” and claimed that the chief secretary’s son was not its founder, director or employee.
“We would like to clarify to all that such allegation is baseless and without any truth,” it said. The report of the vigilance minister clearly mentions that information of association of the chief secretary’s son with MetaMix was obtained from public domain. “There is no reason to doubt this information,” said a government source .
Atishi also alleged in her fresh report that a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, made by ILBS on September 1 announcing a collaboration of the hospital’s department of hepatology and the company had also been deleted. A doctor at ILBS said the social media handle was operated by her for updating academic activities only and it was not official handle of the institute.
Sources close to the chief secretary have claimed that his son is not a signatory to any Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the company and ILBS. He is not at all connected with the company in question as a shareholder or director or partner or employee, they claimed.
The ILBS in a statement on Friday had denied the allegations as “totally baseless and without merit.” “ILBS confirms that it did not issue any purchase order or made any payment to any AI software developer or company,” it said.
With inputs from News18