A Delhi Assembly panel allegedly accused Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash of "lying" and "shielding" officers in the committee proceedings involving irregularities of around Rs 100 crores in a cooperative bank on Sunday. The chief secretary has filed a petition in the Delhi High Court in this regard. The committee had initiated privilege proceedings against Prakash after he did not appear before it last Wednesday when he was summoned. The panel, which has been examining the matter since March last year, alleged that in the plea filed by Prakash in the court, he has distorted facts, challenging a breach of privilege notice served on him for non-appearance before the committee. "The committee members challenge the chief secretary to stick to the contents of his affidavit and should not alter these contents, which are a clear lie under oath. He is trying to shield those who are involved in this multi-crore scam, which appears to be on the lines of what has come to light recently in some public sector banks, including the Punjab National Bank," the panel stated in a statement. However, according to senior bureaucrats, Prakash was issued a notice on Thursday and asked to submit a report in the matter by Monday, which does not make sense, as the time in between was a government holiday following Holi on Friday. "It is illogical to ask him to submit a report while the entire three days were off. This is done just to intimidate the officers," said a senior officer. The panel had initiated similar proceedings against former Chief Secretary MM Kutty for not appearing before it. Besides Prakash, current secretary-cum-registrar of the department of cooperative society (RCS), JB Singh, and former RCS Shurbir Singh too are facing privilege charges for not appearing before the panel on Wednesday. Last month, the committee had recommended "criminal proceedings" against two IAS officers for "assisting the corrupt" in connection with the alleged irregularities in Delhi Nagrik Sehkari Bank Ltd. Also, it had recommended that the Chief Secretary must submit an action taken report in the matter before the House within a month.