Rajendra Kumar ,a bureaucrat in the limelight

New Delhi, Dec 15  IAS officer Rajendra Kumar, whose alleged involvement in corruption led to CBI raids which sparked of a major political spat between the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government and the Narendra Modi-led central government, is a 1989 batch officer of the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territories) cadre.

Presently principal secretary to Chief Minister Kejriwal, Rajendra Kumar, who is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-D) where he studied electrical engineering, has also served as secretary to Kejriwal in 2013 during the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) first stint in power which lasted only 49 days.

Born on December 16, 1966, he has served in Mizoram and the Andaman Islands, apart from Delhi where he has held a variety of posts including in the Commonwealth Games Cell in 2007-08, Delhi Transco Ltd, and the sales tax department, as per the union department of personnel and training.

Having done a course in development management at the prestigious Asian Institute of Management in Manila, Rajendra Kumar is also a recipient of the Prime Ministers Award for Excellence in Public Administration in 2008 for his work on Management Information Systems.

Rajendra Kumar also served as principal secretary in urban development department, power and transport department. His office in the Delhi Secretariat was raided following complaints made to CBI that certain private companies received benefits from the departments where he was posted over the past few years.

According to reports, the reasons behind the raids at Rajendra Kumar's office was a complaint by senior bureaucrat Ashish Joshi, who had written to Anti-Corruption Branch chief M.K. Meena, who is currently at loggerheads with the Kejriwal government, accusing the bureaucrat of allegedly indulging in corruption.

As per the complaint, Rajendra Kumar formed a company named Endeavors Systems Private Ltd along with some people. In 2007, when he became secretary (IT) in the Delhi government, he got this company empanelled as a public sector unit as Intelligent Communication Systems India Limited (ICSIL). This helped Kumar to get his company secure work without going through the tendering process.

The complaints also alleged that as director of education (technical and training) -- from May 2002 to February 2005 -- and commissioner (VAT), Rajendra Kumar had allegedly set up various companies to award work orders of departments without tenders which caused "financial loss" to the city government.