UP Assembly Election 2012: Lokayukta Justice NK Mehrotra wants Mayawati aide Naseemuddin Siddiqui's assets probed

LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh Lokayukta has asked CBI and Enforcement Directorate to investigate chief minister Mayawati’s closest aide and minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui. Lokayukta Justice NK Mehrotra said the assets of Nasseemuddin and his wife MLC Husna Siddiqui were found to be disproportionate to their known sources of income.

Mehrotra said that the charges against Siddiqui were found to be of grave nature, which required a detailed inquiry.

Hence he had recommended the CM to request for a CBI and Enforcement Directorate probe. He said that Siddiqui had floated a QF Educational Society, which existed only on paper but had vast properties in its name. Siddiqui is Mayawati's confidant and heads a dozen important departments, besides overseeing key party-related work.

The QF Educational Society, according to the complainant in the case, allegedly purchased 57 bighas in Bara Banki, valued at Rs 16 crore, for just Rs 46 lakh. Similarly, land was purchased in Tindwari village of Banda for Rs 4.5 lakh which in reality was worth Rs 1 crore.

The Lokayukta said that the complainant in the case had stated that Siddiqui had conducted large-scale irregularities in the Bundelkhand Area Development Fund and used the ill-gotten money to buy land at several places.

Income-tax returns filed by Siddiqui stated his income as Rs 1.92 crore, in the last four years, but his family has acquired several acres worth Rs 50 crore in Barabanki, Fatehpur, Banda and Amroha districts, according to the complaint.

The complaint also says that Husna Siddiqui purchased a bungalow of 16,000 sqm in the cantonment area for Rs 50 lakh from Meera Chauhan, when as per the circle rate only the cost of super structure is around one crore.

Siddiqui's son Afzal Siddiqui had also set up a processed-meat factory in the name of AQ Frozen Fruit, which had encroached upon huge tracts of land. Many charges against Siddiqui were found to be true, prima facie, and requiring further investigation, the Lokayukta said while recommending CBI and ED probes.

The Lokayukta has by now indicted several ministers and MLAs of BSP, which led to either they stepping down from the ministry or expulsion. With Mayawati's closest aide Siddiqui now facing the heat, and CBI probing the Rs 5,000-crore NRHM scam, which has claimed five people's life, corruption cases against her government are piling up.