JP Nadda in health ministry may be bad news for whistleblower ​Sanjiv Chaturvedi

NEW DELHI: Whistleblower Sanjiv Chaturvedi, who has demanded a CBI inquiry into his removal as AIIMS chief vigilance officer, may find himself in a piquant situation with newly-inducted Union minister J P Nadda becoming the health minister.

It was reported that Nadda had written to the then health minister, Harsh Vardhan, for Chaturvedi's removal as CVO.

Chaturvedi is now posted as deputy secretary at AIIMS, the country's premier institution which will be under Nadda's ministerial control. It will be a similarly peculiar situation for all those AIIMS faculty members and researchers who have requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reinstate Chaturvedi, an Indian Forest Service officer, as CVO.

In his representations to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), Chaturvedi, who was removed from the post of CVO in August, had sought a CBI inquiry into the matter.

Though the health ministry claimed to have removed the whistleblower on procedural grounds, Chaturvedi, in his representations to the CVC, referred to reports that BJP general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Nadda had written several letters to the ministry seeking his removal.

It was reported that one of the anti-corruption inquiries initiated by Chaturvedi was against IAS officer Vineet Chaudhary, who was earlier deputy director (administration) in AIIMS. A CBI case was registered against Chaudhary in January for alleged financial irregularities. Incidentally, Chaudhary was Himachal Pradesh health secretary when Nadda was the state's health minister.

Before being shifted to AIIMS as CVO, Chaturvedi was posted in Haryana. He had become uncomfortable for the state government when he, as a divisional forest officer, exposed many forest-related scams in 2009.