New Delhi: Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena has approved a Directorate of Vigilance proposal that has referred a corruption case involving four PWD engineers for a CBI probe, officials said on Thursday.
The case is related to alleged payments based on "forged" invoices by the engineers to Surender Kumar Bansal, said to be a relative of the chief minister, for the construction of a Public Works Department (PWD) drain that was never completed, they said.
The ruling AAP hit back at the Saxena's nod to the proposal, calling it a "blatant witch hunt by the BJP and the LG" to tarnish Kejriwal's image.
The party said Bansal was a contractor long before Kejriwal joined politics and added that Bansal passed away in 2017.
No immediate reaction was available from the BJP and LG office over AAP's charge.
According to the official document, the Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) corruption branch of Delhi government, registered a case in the matter in 2017 and filed a chargesheet.
The case was based on a complaint that Bansal, said to be Kejriwal's brother-in-law, was awarded construction work of the drain along a service lane of National Highway-44, officials said.
The DoV in November last year sought prosecution sanction against the four engineers from the central public works department that quoted the vigilance commission's guidelines and suggested a CBI investigation in the matter, they said.
The engineers later got anticipatory bail from the Delhi High Court in September 2018.
The AAP alleged it was a "blatant witch hunt by the BJP and its Lt Governor" to distract attention from their "glaring failure" to deliver anything meaningful for the people of Delhi in the recently presented Union Budget.
"This is yet another baseless attempt to tarnish CM Arvind Kejriwal's reputation by unjustly connecting him for the sake of sensational headlines," AAP charged in a statement.
"The BJP is still engaging in a "baseless witch hunt" seven years after Bansal passed away in 2017. He was a contractor long before Arvind Kejriwal entered politics," it said.
The AAP demanded an "unbiased" investigation into the matter. "We are resolute in our stance that the culprits must be punished, no matter their identity or position," the AAP said.