CBI raids CM Kejriwal's Office, Sparks of Huge Protest

NEW DELHI: “Modi is a coward and a psychopath” tweeted Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal just after his office was raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation without permission, or even forewarning. The tweet made it clear that relations between the two governments and leaders have now deteriorated to perhaps a point of no return

The CBI that reportedly stormed into the Chief Ministers office, sealed off the floor and refused to allow officials to enter. Protests stalled Parliament as soon as the news came in with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley claiming that the raid was against an officer, and no one from the CBI had entered the Chief Ministers “room”.

CM Kejriwal called Jaitley a “liar” and said that the raid was on his office and on one of his most trusted officers Principal Secretary Rajender Kumar. “CBI lying. My own office raided. Files of CM office are being looked into. Let Modi say which file he wants?" Kejriwal tweeted adding that Rajender is being used as an excuse.

Kumar is a 1987 batch IAS officer, an IIT graduate like Kejriwal, and has worked with him before.

Political parties came out in strong support of the Delhi Chief Minister with the CPI(M) being first out with a statement maintaining, “The CBI raid on the office of the Chief Minister of Delhi is highly condemnable and smacks of a politically motivated act. It is unprecedented that in the name of investigating the accusations against a bureaucrat, the office of the Chief Minister should be sealed and files searched, as alleged by the Chief Minister.In any case, if indeed the CBI was targeting a bureaucrat whose office was on the same floor as the CM's, as claimed by the CBI, why was the Chief Minister not consulted? This raid is a new low in the Modi Government's encroachment on the rights and dignity of non BJP elected Governments.”

The raid feeds into allegations by political leaders of the political misuse of the CBI. The Delhi Chief Minister, in particular, has been targeted specifically by the Modi dispensation at different levels. An instance of this, according to AAP sources, was the Delhi police