CAG report flags 'doubtful' consultants, estimate revision

Cost up thrice to ₹33 crore, reveals audit trail

- Ritu Sarin & Jatin Anand New Delhi, January 4

ALL THESE CONTRIBUTED to the escalation of cost of renovation of the premises of 6, Flag Staff Road, office and residence of then Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. From preliminary estimates of ₹7.91 crore, work was awarded at ₹8.62 crore in 2020 and when it was completed by the Public Works Department (PWD) in 2022, the total cost was ₹33.66 crore.

These are learnt to be among the key findings of a report by then Comptroller and Auditor General Girish Chandra Murmu.

The Indian Express has learned that Murmu signed off on this report just a week before he demitted office on November 20, 2024. Flagging his campaign Friday for the upcoming Delhi elections, PM Narendra Modi slammed Kejriwal saying he could have built a "Sheesh Mahal," - the BJP's name for this house as a symbol of what it calls AAP's corruption - but had ensured that 4 crore citizens had got houses in the last 10 years. Weeks after he was released on bail in the liquor case in September - in which he was arrested by Enforcement Directorate on March 21, 2024 - Kejriwal vacated the premises in October 2024 after stepping down as Delhi CM on September 17.

The AAP has consistently said that the property is not Kejriwal's "personal" asset and, as the CM's residence, will be allotted to others in the future.

The CAG report is said to have a section on "irregularities" by PWD related to the "remodelling" of existing accommodation on the ground floor and the construction of an "additional storey."