Delhi lieutenant governor VK Saxena’s nod for ACB probe against ex-CMO official

NEW DELHI: Lieutenant governor VK Saxena on Friday granted approval to the anti-corruption branch to investigate a complaint against a Delhi government officer, who, during his posting as deputy secretary in chief minister’s office in 2017, allegedly demanded a bribe from a civil defence volunteer.
Sources said Mukul Manrai, who was looking after the chief minister’s Jan Samvad initiative and Public Grievance Management System, allegedly demanded monetary gratification from a civil defence volunteer (CDV) in lieu of certifying his attendance register. When refused, Manrai allegedly wrote to the civil defence officer for the victim’s removal and, as a result, the latter could not get his last salary.
Manrai is currently working in the revenue department. The LG gave the approval to the ACB to act under Section (17A) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PoC Act), 1988. The LG, in the past few weeks, has taken action in several complaints of corruption, either recommending suspension of officials or ordering a probe by investigating agencies.
Sources said a large number of similar complaints by “hapless CDV” have been doing rounds.
“It appears that using his official position, Manrai had established a blatant racket of monthly collections from the payments made to CDVs. The complainant was so harassed that he had to record the conversation regarding demand of money by Manrai and create evidence to expose the racket,” said an official.
Sources said that a complaint was received in November 2017, along with a CD recording as evidence, and since then, it had been “moving in circles”.
“Evidently, the accused utilised his position of proximity in the CMO to deliberately delay the matter by making the file pointlessly shuffle between the directorate of vigilance, general administration department, administrative reforms department and the education Department. This obviously indicates attempts at delaying the process for benefitting the accused,” said an official, requesting anonymity.
When the complaint finally reached the ACB, said officials, the agency sent the CD to the forensic science laboratory (FSL) for authentication. “The FSL, which did a frame-by-frame analysis of the video and audio, found it to be unaltered, untampered and genuine. The ACB also submitted a transcript of the conversation, provided by FSL, between the victim and the accused,” said a source.
On the basis of the evidence, the vigilance directorate found that the then deputy secretary in CMO “abused his official position for pecuniary gains”. “Having been satisfied with the evidence provided on file, the LG has since granted approval for investigation by the ACB on priority,” said an official.