The CBI is said to have approached the Union Home Ministry seeking its approval to prosecute Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's former principal secretary Rajendra Kumar, who was arrested by it earlier this year on corruption charges. It is mandatory for the agency to seek the sanction before filing a charge sheet against government officials. Kumar is a 1989-batch IAS officer of UT cadre and was named by the CBI along with four others for allegedly showing undue favors to ESPL in the award of government contracts worth over Rs 50 crore. The CBI is learnt to have claimed that they have sufficient material evidence to charge sheet Kumar and others. Among them are reportedly audio recordings that the CBI claims to have seized from Kumar's computer during raids last year. According to the CBI, the audio clips contain Kumar's instructions to "influence and manipulate" contracts in favor of Endeavour Systems Private Limited (ESPL). In its FIR, the CBI noted that four contracts were given to ESPL. These included projects for Delhi Transport Limited when Rajender Kumar was the chairman and managing director of DTL, for the Health Department when Kumar was health secretary, for the VAT Department when Kumar was commissioner of trade and taxes, and for Delhi Jal Board when he was the secretary, Urban Development. Government sources said the Department of Personnel and Training would be consulted before the sanction is granted to the CBI. "We will examine the evidence presented by the CBI against Kumar and may seek clarifications from the agency," said a senior government official on condition of anonymity.