Rajendra Kumar, the former principal secretary to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, alleged that the Central Bureau of Investigation had harassed him and tried to force him to implicate Kejriwal for corruption. “I was repeatedly told that I would be let free if I implicate the chief minister of Delhi,” alleged Kumar in a letter to the current chief secretary of the Capital.

Kumar has also sought voluntary retirement. “It was a very difficult decision and I have taken this decision with a very heavy heart... as the government has provided me a medium to work for the people. There are many other ways to work for public welfare and I will seek those,” he said, according to IANS. He has asked the authorities concerned to accept his request within three weeks, reported Economic Times.

In the letter, Kumar claimed “the same set of people” who had compelled bureaucrat BK Bansal and his son to commit suicide had harassed him also. Bansal, a Corporate Affairs Ministry official, killed himself along with his son in September. In his suicide note, the bureaucrat had accused several CBI officials of having tortured his family. He had said that a deputy inspector general of the CBI along with two women officers and a constable tortured his wife and daughter after which they committed suicide in July.

The CBI, which had filed a chargesheet against Kumar in connection with a corruption case on December 19, denied his allegations. “They are baseless allegations. If he needs to say something then he should address the court,” an official told NDTV.

The agency had arrested Kumar and four others in July for their involvement in the Rs 50-crore scandal involving the purchase of computers. He was released on bail later that month. Investigators said they had audio clips containing Kumar’s instructions to influence and manipulate contracts in favour of Endeavour Systems Private Limited.

Kumar was suspended from his post by the Delhi government after his arrest. The CBI had raided Kumar’s office in December 2015 and accused him of criminal conspiracy. The Delhi chief minister and other Aam Aadmi Party members had claimed the move was part of a conspiracy to paralyse the AAP government.