Amid high drama, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court here on Tuesday remanded Rajender Kumar, Principal Secretary to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and four others to five days police custody. Rajender was arrested by CBI officials for allegedly misusing his official position and facilitated tenders to Endeavor Systems Private Limited (ESPL) worth Rs 9.5 crore.Deputy Secretary Tarun Sharma, ESPL Directors Dinesh Gupta and Sandeep Kumar, and Ashok Kumar who were also arrested on Monday, were remanded to police custody along with Rajender.In a show of strength, a team of CBI lawyers including standing counsel Sonia Mathur were present in court today, whereas the defence was represented by senior advocates Mohit Mathur and Ramesh Gupta were present along with senior advocate HS Phoolka among others.Apart from the muscle, emotions rode high as statements were made by both sides of the party that were either politically motivated or bound to incite a response from the general public. "Historically in Indian democracy the accused is a public servant - sitting as a Principal Secretary... The investigation done must be thorough and fair. Public servants will come and go, but the institution must preserve its dignity," public prosecutor VK Ojha said in court.Sonia Mathur submitted that Rajender was arrested more than six months after the First Information Report (FIR) was registered - the FIR was registered on December 14, 2015, since he was intimidating witnesses and many of them have come forward to attest this fact. She further added that, "All grounds mentioned can be substantiated by the CBI."Vehemently objecting to the submission, the defence argued that their clients have been continuously cooperating with the probe agency. Paraphrasing their submissions, the counsels collectively stated that their clients' homes and offices were raided, their accounts frozen and all were summoned at various dates and kept for hours on end by CBI officials over the past seven months.The defence argued that only Delhi government officials who were under the scanner for alleged corruption have been arrested, those officials investigated for corruption in this case and who are considered to be close to the Centre (BJP government) were not named in the FIR.At one point during the more than hour long trial, Gupta interjected the proceedings and exclaimed that due to the merciless beatings he got from CBI officers during interrogation, he has lost hearing in one of his ears. "I was repeatedly threatened to become an approver, or else they (CBI officials) said that they would destroy me," Dinesh Gupta told special CBI judge Arvind Kumar who was presiding over the case.After this confession, Mohit Mathur statement that CBI was a "fair and just agency" was met with much snickering from the packed house. His statement that the "national probe agency was nothing but a political agency," was met with much approval as the crowd spontaneously started clapping and a "down with CBI" was heard from a member of the audience.Meanwhile, deputy chief minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia slammed the Centre over the transfer of nine government officials and accused the Centre of running a parallel government at the capital."The elected government of Delhi is being bypassed and a parallel government is being run through an undemocratic process," Sisodia told media persons, adding that even if it is the central government's responsibility to provide officers to Delhi government, it has only taken away officers from Delhi to weaken the local government.

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