The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday conducted searches at over half-a-dozen places in the Uttar Pradesh in connection with the Rs 1,400-crore memorial scam during Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati’s tenure.
The ED searches come a week after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided the premises of officers and ministers of former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s Cabinet in connection with the illegal sand mining and Gomti Riverfront scam.
According to officials, many bureaucrats are also on the radar of the ED as the searches are underway.
The residence of then managing director of UP Nirman Nigam, CP Singh, in Lucknow was searched by the ED officials along with those of officers and contractors involved in the alleged scam.
Earlier, the CBI had carried out searches at 14 locations in connection with the alleged illegal mining of minor minerals in Hamirpur district during Samajwadi Party regime in 2012-16. Reacting to the development, the former chief minister said that the agency was targeting opposition parties ahead of the general elections.
His statement was supported by BSP chief Mayawati who recently forged an alliance with the SP.
The raids were conducted five months after the Allahabad High Court in September last asked for the status of vigilance report in the alleged memorial scam. The high court had also directed the administration not to “spare” any culprits. A bench of Chief Justice DB Bhosale and Justice Yashwant Verma was hearing the matter then.
The UP Lokayukta had indicted former ministers Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Babu Singh Kushwaha along with 197 others for “wrongdoing” in the purchase of sandstone for Dalit memorials in Lucknow and Noida during Mayawati’s regime from 2007 to 2012. Lokayukta NK Mehrotra, who handed over his 88-page report to former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, had, however, exonerated BSF chief Mayawati for lack of evidence and had said there was no proof against her or any bureaucrat.
While Naseemuddin Siddiqui, who is facing several cases of disproportionate assets, is already out of the BSP and has now joined the Congress, Babu Singh Kushwaha was expelled from the BSP after he was accused in another infamous scam in National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in the state. Singh is presently in jail in connection with the case.
Along with the two former BSP ministers, former joint director of mining SA Farooqui, former managing director of Rajkiya Nirman Nigam CP Singh and 15 engineers have also been named in the FIR, sources in police said in Lucknow.
The FIR was registered at Gomti Nagar police station by vigilance inspector Ram Naresh Rathore in January 2014 when Akhilesh Yadav was the Chief Minister of UP.
The other major finding in the Lokayukta report was that around Rs 4,188 crore was spent on the purchase and finishing of stones for the memorials, out of which around 35 percent went in the pockets of bureaucrats, politicians, contractors and engineers.
The Lokayukta report recommended investigation against 199 people and also stated that there was evidence of commission taken by the 199 people named in the report.