A Delhi city court on 18th January has issued summons to DCW Chief Swati Maliwal to appear before the court on 6th February in an alleged case of irregularities in appointments to the women’s rights panel.
This recruitment scam has exposed the AAP and Arvind Kejriwal’s complicity in the scam. But what has baffled us all including many profound followers of Kejriwal is, the audacious manner, the CM of Delhi Sri Arvind Kejriwal formed a coterie with a conscious mind to favor his party cadres by misusing the official position. During the entire process of illegal recruitment of DCW staff both the Chief Minister of Delhi and Ms Swati Maliwal were never in any discomfort situation while indulging in it, disregarding his own honest stature he created for himself, before entering politics.
The ACB has investigated the charges and filed the charge sheet in December 2016 for offence under Section 13(1)(d) (by corrupt or illegal means, obtains any pecuniary advantage) and 13(2) (public servant who commits criminal misconduct) of the Prevention of Corruption (POC) Act.
Mrs Swati Maliwal ’s predecessor Barkha Singh Shukla of the Congress was the complainant in this case. In her complaint to the ACB, she had stated that nearly 85 people who “got jobs without requisite credentials and are drawing lakhs of rupees from the Delhi government exchequer”.
The FIR was lodged under Section 3 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, apart from sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant) of IPC.
The Dy Chief Minister of Delhi Sri Manish Sisodia too was questioned by the ACB in this connection.
The ACB was probing several crucial appointments in the DCW office, some of which as detailed below. It appears ACB since completed the probe and filed the charge sheet.
The investigation also revealed that the appointments were made without inviting any applications by way of publication or constituting a selection board.
1. Appointment of Promila Gupta, Farheen Malik and Sarika Chaudhary as members of the commission: The ACB is examining the work they had done in the last three years, and whether they were full-time members of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is in government in Delhi.
2. Appointments to 60 consultant jobs. One particular appointment being examined is that of AAP leader H S Poolka’s daughter Prabhsahay Phoolka who was hired as a legal consultant with a monthly salary of Rs 35,000.
3. Appointment of Raaj Mangal Prasad as an adviser to DCW chairperson Maliwal: Prasad was the AAP’s candidate in the Lok Sabha election in 2014 from Vaishali constituency in Bihar. He has hired at a salary of Rs 1 lakh per month.
4. Appointment of Divya Balaji and Bhupender Singh as advocacy officers: They were hired at salaries of Rs 70,000 per month. The ACB is examining whether the posts were advertised or not.
A brief background of Mrs Swati Maliwal
Born on 15th October 1984, in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, Swati Maliwal ( Daughter of an army officer and mother was a Chemistry teacher ) has completed her B.Tech (Information Technology) from JSS Academy of Technical Education. She later joined IAC, and AAP. She initially chose social work over corporate jobs, so rejected a plum offer from HCL and joined IAC and AAP. She was associated with the NGO Parivartan co founded by Arvind Kejriwal.
She is Married to AAP Member Naveen Jaihind. Sri Naveen Jaihind was an RTI activist, active member of AAP and associated with Sri Arvind Kejriwal , Anna Hazare since the time of IAC movement. Jaihind is not a surname but he christened himself with this suffix to avoid caste publicity.
Swati Maliwal was entangled in many nasty controversies in the past
The very appointment of Swati Maliwal by the AAP Govt of Delhi ran in to controversy as the then Lt Governor of Delhi Najib Jung rejected her appointment as his prior approval was not sought by the Kejriwal Goverrnment.
This shows CM s ‘hurry’ in appointing her as premeditated one with ulterior motives.
Maliwal was accused of naming a 14-year-old girl who died after she was raped multiple times and then forced to ingest liquids that harmed her internal organs beyond recovery. An FIR was also filed against Swati Maliwal.
In Septemger 2016, in the suicide case of former bureaucrat B K Bansal and his family Maliwal sent a stern letter to CBI giving 48 hrs to furnish information about the probe and the manner in which it is being conducted, failing which, she stated that “appropriate action will be taken as per law.”
In an another case :
The members of Panchshila club, Delhi had alleged that DCW Chief Swati Maliwal abused her position in a sexual harassment case against club president. They alleged that a woman member of the club had approached the DCW with a complaint against the Club s President Mr Saigal. The complainant accused Mr Saigal of touching her body in a swimming pool. Members of the club complained to the police said, that the complaint was ‘false, malicious and mala fide’.
It is evident from the above, how seemingly honest, sincere and committed youths , associate themselves with non-profit NGO’s with a sincere commitment to social work etc, become dishonest, biased, deceitful and prejudiced once entered politics, betraying the very peoples trust.
This recruitment scam, though not a mega one in terms of money, but surely tarnished the image of AAP