CBI has booked former Chief Medical Officer of Lucknow A K Shukla and former Deputy CMO Y S Sachan, who recently died inside Lucknow district prison under mysterious circumstances, in the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission scam.
The agency has filed two cases in the scam as it found leads which indicate that huge financial bungling was allegedly committed by the UP Health Department officials in connivance with the contractors, CBI sources said.
The CBI has alleged in the FIRs that officials in-charge of funds from the Centre under the NRHM allegedly acted hand-in-gloves with the contractors to create fraudulent reimbursement bills in the names of hiring of vehicles and medicine purchases to withdraw funds for personal gains, agency sources said.
The agency has accused the then CMO A K Shukla, Deputy CMO Sachan, District Administrative Office C J Yadav and clerk P C Verma of cheating, criminal conspiracy, forgery among other charges under Prevention of Corruption Act, they said.
The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court had on July 27 directed the CBI to probe the murders of the two CMOs and also irregularities in implementation of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) within three months.
The order was passed by Justices Pradeep Kant and Ritu Raj Awasthi after the Mayawati government had recommended a CBI probe into the deaths of the CMOs.
Sources said the agency has found crucial leads linking the murders of two Chief Medical Officers Vinod Kumar Arya and B P Singh in Lucknow with the alleged bungling of funds in the National Rural Health Mission.
With the registration of cases, CBI will now be seeking custody of Shukla and other accused in the case, the sources said.
The then Lucknow CMO Arya was shot dead in October last year while his successor B P Singh was killed on April 2 this year in the posh Gomti Nagar area.
Sachan, who was a suspect and alleged conspirator in Singh’s killing, was found dead under mysterious circumstances inside Lucknow district jail on June 22. The CBI has already registered cases of these murders.
Lucknow Police has also suspected the role of Sachan in the NRHM scam and was going to arrest him but he was found dead in the jail a day before that. The Police has already arrested the then CMO A K Shukla in the NRHM scam.
