NEW DELHI: The Anti-Corruption Branch of the Delhi government on Tuesday filed a corruption case against DCW chief Swati Maliwal on charges of illegal recruitments for the women panel.
The agency registered a case against the Delhi Commission for Woman’s (DCW) chief based on the complaint filed by former head of the Delhi women panel, Barkha Singh Shukla who had alleged that Maliwal gave important posts on the panel to several AAP supporters. She had also shared a list with the names of 85 people who, she claimed, got jobs ‘without requisite credentials’.
“A case was registered against Maliwal,” said ACB chief Mukesh Kumar Meena adding they will also send a notice to Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia as his name had cropped up during the inquiry into the complaint.
The probing agency had been investigating the matter for the last two-three months. The agency also found that standard procedure “was not followed in appointments and a total of 91 appointments were found to be made without following due process”.
An anti-graft team had interrogated Maliwal for over two hours on Monday afternoon. She was also handed over a questionnaire with 27 queries. The team sought her reply within a week’s time.
“I have been asked 27 questions and given a week’s time to reply. We have been asked how we did so many appointments to the women’s panel. In a way, they are asking how did we manage to do so much work?” Maliwal had said after her questioning.
In August, the agency had carried out raids at the commission’s office for the alleged arbitrary appointments of AAP members in the panel and had seized documents related to the probe.
It was Express that reported on July 31 that as much as 90 per cent of contractual staff in the DCW were AAP members. She has not, however, followed any recruitment rules and had hired people for the Delhi office which comprises of three small rooms.
Following the report by Express, Barkha Singh Shukla had registered a complaint at the anti-corruption branch of Delhi government and Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung also ordered a departmental inquiry into the matter.