The Central government has despatched a barrage of correspondence to the Uttar Pradesh government demanding a speedy investigation into allegations of forgery in a trust linked to senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid.
The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has been pursuing the case of Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust and the alleged irregularities in the distribution of prosthetic limbs for over a year. It has even taken the opinion of the Law Ministry on whether the case, being investigated by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the U.P. government, is a fit case for investigation by the CBI.
Top sources in the Ministry confirmed to The Hindu , that at least 60 letters have been exchanged between the Centre and the State government, with the State not really reacting to repeated pleas by the Ministry for a speedy conclusion to the probe.
“We have spoken to the Law Ministry, this is a matter related to Central funds, and can be investigated by the CBI. We also want the EOW to complete its investigation,” said a senior source in the Ministry.
The Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment has repeatedly written to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on this issue.
Early this February, the Minister wrote a letter to Mr. Yadav in which he said: “In a letter dated 12/06/2012 sent by the Uttar Pradesh government in response to a query to verify the test check report, it was stated that out of 17 districts where camps for distribution (of prosthetics) were held, in nine districts the signatures of state government officials verifying it were forgeries.”
According to Ministry officials, they “want the State to complete its investigation as two Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petitions are also pending in the matter before the Allahabad High Court, before pushing for a CBI probe.”
Published - December 12, 2015 03:10 am IST
