NEW DELHI: Former NDMC chairperson Jalaj Srivastava has alleged that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been misled by the civic body about the pending licence fee payment by Le Meridien hotel.
Srivastava, who is facing a CBI probe for alleged irregularities in the payment of licence fee arrears by Le Meridien, has written to the Chief Minister noting that wrong facts have been presented to him by the civic body officials.
The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), of which Kejriwal is a member, had last week decided to cancel the licence of the luxury hotel following non-payment of dues of Rs 523 crore.
NDMC officials, when contacted, maintained that the "agenda note for the meeting was prepared after analysing the existing records".
"You have not been apprised of the real background so far as it concerns my decision taken in the files. The NDMC officers have utterly misled and duped the council meeting headed by you," Srivastava said.
Le Meridien's licence fee has been a bone of contention since 2015 with allegations of irregularities against the civic body in recovery of licence fee from the 5-star property located in the city's Lutyens' Zone.
The NDMC had hiked its licence fee to over Rs 3 crore last year.
It is alleged that NDMC officials allowed a settlement of pending licence fee dues towards the civic body by the hotel by accepting a one-time fee of over Rs 150 crore which allegedly resulted in a loss of Rs 400 crore to the exchequer.
The former NDMC chief also alleged that the officials have also "concealed" files from the KK Pathak inquiry committee probing this issue.
"Attempts have been made to conceal facts from the KK Pathak committee and implicate me, the same has been pointed out in the probe report as well.
"I appeal to you to go through the file notings thoroughly..., the agenda note of the recent meeting in which facts have been misrepresented about the Le Meridien issue," Srivastava wrote to Kejriwal.