NEW DELHI: A city court today allowed the Delhi Police's Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) to interrogate Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's nephew, arrested in connection with an alleged scam in the Public Works Department (PWD), for two days.
Additional Sessions Judge Sanjay Khanagwal sent Vinay Bansal for custodial interrogation after the counsel for ACB said he was required to be taken to Sonepat and other areas around Delhi for investigation purposes.
"Considering the circumstances and for a fair investigation, the accused be sent to two-day police custody. To be produced before the court on May 16," the judge said.
Vinay, who is the son of Kejriwal's late brother-in-law Surender Bansal, was produced before the court today in a wheelchair after two production warrants were issued for his presence before the court on May 11 and May 12.
But the jail authorities had failed to produce him on both the occasions.
He was admitted to the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital here after he fainted in the courtroom on May 10.
A medical report submitted by the authorities said Vinay was stable.
The court, while sending him to police custody, allowed him home-cooked food twice a day and to carry all his medicines and prescriptions.
The proceedings, which were to begin at 10 am, could take place only at 4 pm as the police failed to produce him on time.
Seeking his custody, public prosecutor Balbir Singh today argued that according to an FIR lodged in May 2017, Vinay and his father were working on a project of over Rs 4 crore.
After receiving a payment of Rs 3 crore, they showed fake bills of Rs 1 crore for the procurement of steel from a company that was "non-existent", he said.
Opposing the prosecutor's arguments, advocate B S Joon, appearing for Vinay, told the court all the allegations were baseless and it was a motivated case to target Kejriwal.
Joon said Vinay had nothing to do with the project and had not signed any documents in this regard.
He further said all the documentary evidence was already with the agency and no recovery was to be made from the accused for which his custody was being sought by the police.
The court, after hearing the two sides, sent Vinay to custody directing that he be produced before it on May 16 when it would also hear his bail application.
Vinay was arrested on May 10 by the ACB.
The court had then rejected the application of the ACB for a three-day police remand, saying that Vinay was not medically fit.
Three FIRs, including one against a company run by Bansal, were registered by the ACB in this case on May 9 last year.
Three companies, including Renu Constructions (owned by the Bansals, Kamal Singh and Pawan Kumar), were named in the FIRs.
In a complaint, Rahul Sharma, the founder of Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO), had alleged that Kejriwal and PWD minister Satyendra Jain misused their office for grant of contracts to Bansal.
However, they were not named in the FIR.
RACO, an organisation which claims to monitor construction projects in the national capital, had alleged that a firm linked to Bansal was involved in financial irregularities in building a drainage system in north-west Delhi.
It had also alleged the bills sent to the PWD for unfinished works were "false and fabricated".