Delhi govt’s ‘snooping unit’ kept ‘cash in a chest that opened with two keys’

Seven months after the unit allegedly became operational and four months after he joined it on deputation, one of the two officials who claims to have held one of the two keys to the SSF chest, Shams Afroz, a deputy superintendent of police from Bihar, wrote a three-page letter to the Special Secretary of the Vigilance Department, raising red flags in relation to its financial functioning.

Afroz, who had been assigned to function as Deputy Director (Administration & Finance) in the Delhi government and joined the alleged unit on May 30, wrote the letter on September 22, 2016. It was titled ‘Expenditure from Secret Service Fund (SSF) of Feedback Unit, Dte. of Vigilance’.

He wrote that though the SSF allocated to Feedback Unit was placed at his disposal, the following day, an order was issued deputing the Advisor to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to “function as Joint Director in the feedback Unit”, and stating that the SSF “shall be maintained /utilised under his direct supervision”.

Afroz wrote that on June 6, “certain instructions” were issued for regulation of the SSF, directing him to use money from it “at the instructions” of the Advisor. The following day, he stated, he was directed to disburse Rs 5 lakh to clear “certain pending payments for the last 2-3 months” to “different sources and agencies” in connection with “different types of operations and collecting feedback”.

As per guidelines, Afroz stated, a disbursal register bearing details of the person who receives the fund and a cash book were being maintained by him “for proper documentation”.

Afroz then went on to describe the resting place of the cash being disbursed to the unit: “The said chest has two sets of keys — one in the custody of undersigned and the second in the custody of the Deputy Director (Feedback Unit). The chest can be opened only when both the keys are used simultaneously.”

He wrote that he was asked to “maintain in the form of a cash book a secret record of the expenditure and receipts (if any) connected with allotment”.

“This record should contain the amount and date of each payment. The amount drawn from the treasury on contingent bills will be entered in the cash book on the receipt side, the number and date of the bill being noted against the entry,” he wrote.