Special secretary, vigilance of Delhi govt reinstated a week after removal

New Delhi: A week after being divested of his charge and alleging a break-in at his office for suspected "tampering of sensitive files", Special Secretary (Vigilance) of the Arvind Kejriwal government YVVJ Rajasekhar was reinstated on Monday.

An order issued by the secretary (vigilance) said Rajasekhar will resume work "as usual" and all the assistant directors will maintain the status as on May 10 as far as the work flow in concerned.

Rajasekhar was divested of all his work and files were taken away from him on the orders of Vigilance Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj.

The order also directed for the de-sealing of room numbers 403 (of special secretary, vigilance) and 404 (confidential section of the special secretary, vigilance) in view of a recent ordinance of the Centre bringing services matters under the lieutenant governor's control.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police has launched a probe into a complaint from Rajasekhar in which he has alleged the opening of the lock of his office in the secretariat and suspected "tampering" of "sensitive" files, including those related to a probe into the excise policy and renovation of the chief minister's residence, officials said.

After resuming work, Rajasekhar issued an order for preparing an inventory of files, including the number of pages, kept at the office of the special secretary, vigilance and his confidential section.

The officials said CCTV footage of the corridor and other areas outside Rajasekhar's office and confidential section at the Delhi secretariat building have been obtained by the police and are being analysed for possible leads.

On May 16, Rajasekhar wrote to the secretary (vigilance) and the chief secretary of the Delhi government, informing them about an unauthorised entry into room no. 403 in the intervening night of May 15-16.

Copies of his complaint were also sent to the home ministry and the LG's office.

"Soon after the incident, the officer concerned had written a letter to his seniors describing the alleged incident. The letter was also marked to us," a senior Delhi Police officer said.

"We had sent a letter requesting the official concerned to preserve the CCTV footage of the date of the alleged incident for investigation. It is a sensitive matter and we are looking into it," the officer added.

In his complaint, Rajasekhar wrote on May 15, after being divested of his works, he had sent 76 files from the confidential section to the vigilance secretary.

He had, however, added that nearly a dozen files, including those related to the excise policy probe, renovation of the chief minister's residence at 6, Flagstaff Road, "Talk to AK" files and certain files of matters referred to central probe agencies, were not sent and kept in his room as those were "more sensitive".

Rajasekhar had said he was informed by an assistant director (vigilance) around 9:15 pm on May 15 that officials were summoned to get his room opened "for the sake of collection of records".

"The undersigned (Rajasekhar) seriously objected to such a call for taking away the records as per the alleged instructions of the minister (vigilance) at midnight...," the complaint read.

According to Rajasekhar's complaint, a "preliminary enquiry" had revealed that a multi-tasking staff opened his room and "photocopied all the records" till 3 am on May 16.

"The undersigned is not sure whether any record/file was taken away or otherwise tampered with or photocopied. The undersigned is apprehensive that the records will be destroyed or might have been destroyed in due course of time," the complaint read.

Rajasekhar also expressed "apprehension" that "our rooms might have been bugged and there is every likelihood of breach of secrecy, tampering of records, fabrication of records etc.," and requested his superiors for appropriate action at the earliest.

Reacting to Rajasekhar's claims, the Delhi government had said work was "officially withdrawn" from him through an order on May 13.

"If the work was officially withdrawn from him on Saturday, how was he still in possession of all files? When his work was assigned to other officers, the office procedure demanded that he should have officially handed over all files to the new officers," the government had said.

His allegation that someone tried to break into his office at night will be "thoroughly investigated", the government had said, promising strict action in the matter.