NRHM scam: CBI books UP revenue board member

NEW DELHI: A UP revenue board member and five others were today booked by the CBI in three new cases for allegedly fudging funds in NRHM projects estimated to be over Rs 250 crore as the agency carried out searches at 44 locations across the state and the national capital.

Residential premises of revenue board member Pradeep Shukla and officials of public sector undertakings were searched during the operation which was spread across Lucknow, Moradabad, Varanasi, Muzafarnagar, Kanpur, Noida and Delhi.

Shukla, who was Principal Secretary Family Welfare in the state government during the tenure of former minister Babu Singh Kushwaha, has been named in all the three new cases registered by the agency in its probe of alleged irregularities in central funds meant for the National Rural Health Mission, CBI sources said.

CBI officials also reached the office of Chief Medical Officer, Allahabad to collect some documents, sources said.

The total cost of projects in which these three cases have been registered is over Rs 250 crore and mainly deal with the construction and upgradation works in hospitals across UP.

Besides Shukla, the agency has named former DG Family Welfare S P Ram and General Manager UP Small Industries Corporation Abhay Kumar Bajpai in the new cases. Both are already in judicial custody.

Another former DG Family Welfare R R Bharti, Managing Director UP Processing and Construction Cooperative Federation (PAACFED) V K Chowdhary, Former Managing Director UP Project Corporation Devender Mohan (now retired) figure in new cases.

CBI has so far registered eight cases arising out of five preliminary inquiries initiated by it on the direction of Allahabad High Court and more cases are likely to be registered, they said.