Indicted by lokayukta, UP minister Awadhpal Singh Yadav resigns

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh’s Animal Husbandry Minister Awadhpal Singh Yadav, against whom Lokayukta has sought lodging of corruption case, resigned “on moral grounds” on Wednesday.

“I have sent my resignation to Chief Minister Mayawati. I am resigning on moral grounds,” the minister said. Yadav’s resignation comes close on the heels of two powerful ministers in the Mayawati government — Babu Singh Kushwaha and Anant Kumar Mishra — who were forced to resign after the murder of three government doctors and massive corruption in the National Rural Health Mission scheme. On Tuesday, UP Lokayukta Justice NK Mehrotra had recommended Yadav's removal from the ministry and lodging of cases against him under the Anti-Corruption Act and Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act.

The Lokayukta had also recommended that all cases lodged against Yadav after 2007 be handed over to an independent agency like the CB-CID for a thorough probe. In his report, Mehrotra has cited police inaction on evidence provided against the minister in a triple murder case in Etah and blamed the SSP for not providing adequate information for him on cases lodged against Yadav.

His involvement in the murder of three people in Etah had led to the issue being raised in the Assembly a few days back. The Opposition had accused the government of shielding Yadav leading to adjournment of the House. He was accused of involved in the murder of jeweler Vijay Verma, his son and their gunner in Jaithra area of Etah. The Lokayukta in his report said that investigations carried out by his office had found that Yadav was also linked in the manufacturing of illicit country made liquor worth several crores.