Mayawati expels aide Babu Singh Kushwaha after corruption charges

LUCKNOW: Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati has expelled her key aide and former minister Babu Singh Kushwaha from the party. He was like Mayawati's shadow in the last two decades and his removal comes even as CBI tightens its grip on the National Rural Health Mission scam (NRHM).

BSP in its statement alleged that Kushwaha was in touch with Congress to save himself from a CBI investigation. Opposition parties in UP have alleged that the NRHM scam leads right up to the highest level in the party.

Kushwaha was the minister for mining and family welfare in the Mayawati government when the murder of three government doctors led to a uproar in the state.

It led to the unraveling of a major scam in the family welfare and health department.

Chief medical officer, family welfare, Vinod Kumar Arya was killed in broad daylight in October 2010, followed by the killing of CMO BP Singh outside his home on April 2.

The police under alleged pressure from the government framed charges against deputy CMO YS Sachan for the murder of the two doctors.

Curiously, on June 22, Sachan was also murdered inside the jail premises. Though it was dismissed as a suicide by police, it was later proven that he was killed. The three murders were related to the rampant corruption in the implementation of the NRHM scheme in Uttar Pradesh.

CBI was later ordered to probe the matter, which saw a jittery Mayawati government accepting the resignation of Babu Singh Kushwaha and health minister Anant Kumar Mishra.