ACB awaits action as war between Centre and AAP continues

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on April 5 launched an anti-corruption helpline amid much fanfare and promised Delhi will soon be among top five corruption-free cities in the world. Three months later, Delhi's Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) has become a political football with both the Aam Aadmi Party government and the Centre fighting fiercely to control the institution.

The tussle between two top ACB officials - MK Meena (appointed by the Centre) and SS Yadav (handpicked by AAP) - has forced several complainants to avoid visiting the ACB office. According to sources, hardly any complainants visited the ACB office in the last three weeks.

There has been no fortnightly mandatory meeting ever since Meena joined as ACB chief, sources said.

The ongoing tussle in the ACB began on June 8 when Joint Commissioner Meena, a 1989-batch Indian Police Service officer, took charge of the ACB, superseding Additional Commissioner SS Yadav.

Yadav had been hand-picked by the Delhi government. Almost two weeks back, Meena demanded that the register and the postal communications received at the ACB police station should be kept in his office.

Meena reportedly asked two ACB personnel in charge of accepting the communications to operate from his office. On the same day, Yadav demanded that the two staff return to his office with all the communications and appointed two of his own staff to accept the communications.

On June 24, Yadav expressed concern over reported "threats to life and liberty" from Meena.

In a letter to the Directorate of Vigilance, Yadav stated that Meena had been reportedly asking him to hand over the ACB FIR book to be shown to "top authorities".

Yadav also said: "Meena has been continuously pressurising me to transfer the two cases registered against Delhi Police officials."

Recently, Meena transferred the station house officer (SHO) at the anti-graft unit. The AAP government hit back and sought to curtail the powers of Meena, asking him to only look after training work and monitoring of cases undergoing trial till the Delhi High Court decides on the validity of his appointment.

However, the court has rejected an AAP plea to restrain Meena from entering the ACB office.