New Delhi | Special Secretary (Vigilance) Y V V J Rajasekhar on Thursday alleged that a legal notice sent by an NGO against him was "fabricated" and was circulated with "various vested interests".
The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer has written to Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, the chairperson of the Press Council of India (PCI), and the Union home secretary over the matter.
It has been claimed that NGO Abhinav Samaj had sent the legal notice to the Delhi government demanding action against Rajasekhar over charges of "corruption, forgery and harassment".
In a statement, the Delhi government said that the lawyer, who had furnished the original complaint, has sent a letter to it, acknowledging and verifying the existence of the said complaint.
He has stated that his client has now backtracked from their stand, either under fear or inducement of some vested interests, it said.
However, the NGO's chairman, GK Gupta, said he has written to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the "fake" legal notice.
"The fake notice sent on behalf of our organisation is fictitious and made with malafide intention. No such notice was issued by Abhinav Samaj. If there is any notice/complaint in name of Abhinav Samaj, kindly investigate the matter as to how our letterpad and name of Abhinav Samaj is used for false complaint with malafide intention," he said.
Rajasekhar also urged the Union home ministry to refer the matter for either a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
"It is requested that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), GoI (Government of India) may kindly consider for entrusting this matter to CBI/ED and other investigating agencies as the vested interests stakes are unfathomable and requires wider investigation by the specialised agencies that has jurisdiction to deal with intrastate and inter-state conspiracies," Rajasekhar said in his letter to the MHA and Justice Desai.
The Delhi government's statement noted that the officer had not denied the existence of complaints against him in the past.
"Regardless of this, the complaint that was submitted by the NGO was only an aggregation of all the different complaints and investigations Rajasekhar has been accused and indicted in. All these complaints exist in the public domain and are independently verifable. Further, as per media reports, in his response, Rajasekhar had not denied the existence of such complaints," the statement read.
The 2012-batch IAS officer, who was overseeing various sensitive cases related to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam, renovation of the chief minister's official residence and razing of a heritage structure for construction of the DJB chief executive officer house, was divested of his duties on the direction of Delhi Services Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on May 13.
Rejecting all the allegations against him, the officer said he has submitted a 157-page report to Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena with documentary evidence citing the fact that he has been given a clean chit.
New Delhi | Delhi Services Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Thursday directed that no orders pertaining to employees will be passed by the chief secretary or the services department without his approval, amid a growing discord between bureaucrats and the city government.
The office of the chief secretary also issued an order for "strict compliance" of the directions issued by the services minister.
Bharadwaj's order comes close on the heels of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government seeking the Centre's approval to appoint 1989-batch Indian Administrative Service officer PK Gupta as the new chief secretary of Delhi. Naresh Kumar is the current chief secretary.
"In supercession of all earlier orders, it is hereby directed that no orders for any category of employees shall be passed by the chief secretary or secretary (services) or services department without the approval of the undersigned," Bharadwaj said in an order signed by him.
Officers of the services department will ensure "strict compliance" of the services minister's directions, the order of the chief secretary's office directed.
"It is further directed that all officers/officials shall follow the statutory provisions (laws, rules regulations, as applicable) and shall mention the channel of submission as well as the competent authority to approve such proposals in terms of applicable statutory provisions while processing any matter of the services department," the order said.
Bharadwaj's order is the latest in a series of directions passed by the AAP dispensation after being given executive power in the services matters, including transfer and posting of officers, in an important verdict by the Supreme Court.
The Delhi government had recently flagged that the provisions of transactions of business rules (TBR) were not being followed and directed officers for strict compliance of the rules.
Bharadwaj had earlier directed that the secretary of the department will present files directly before the minister-in-charge and not through the chief secretary.
Secretary of departments will present the files directly to the minister and not through the chief secretary in accordance with provisions of Rule 15. 2 of the TBR, he had directed.
It was also observed that the chief secretary was giving directions to officers directly, stated an order issued previously by Bharadwaj Chief secretary does not have any powers under the TBR to give any directions directly to any officer, stated the previously issued order.
The officers were asked that any direction received from the chief secretary should be presented before the minister for appropriate instructions.
