In a surprise move, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav ordered to initiate legal proceedings into large scale irregularities in construction of memorials and parks during the previous Mayawati regime in the State. Now sleuths of the Vigilance Establishment are likely to register a case against former minister Naseemudeen Siddiqui, Babu Singh Kushwaha and nineteen senior engineers of the UP Rajkiya Nirman Nigam.
Sources said that chief minister gave his nod to proceeding with registration of case in the above scam. The Vigilance Establishement will now register case against Siddiqui, Kushwaha along with 19 engineers of UP Rajkiya Nirman Nigam which included Suhail Ahmed, CP Singh, Rakesh Chandra, SK Saksena, KR Singh, SP Gupta, PK Jain, Rajeev Garg, SK Agarwal, RK Singh, BD Tripathi, Mukesh Kumar, Hiralal, SK Chaubey, SP Singh, Murli Manohar, and SK Shukla. It may be mentioned that after learning that an irregularity to the tune of over Rs 1400 crore has been made by the officials in construction of memorials during Mayawati’s regime, Akhilesh decided to go for further in-depth probe in the matter so that legal proceedings could be made against the officers which included some ministers who minted money in the name of the building memorials after Dalit scions. He reportedly issued order in this regard on Friday evening asking the senior officers of the Home Department to issue necessary orders in this regard.
Earlier lokayukta Justice (Retd) NK Mehrotra during initial probe by him reportedly indicted 199 persons, including two former BSP ministers, a sitting MlA, several officers and engineers for irregularities in construction of memorials and parks during the previous regime. While submitting his report to Chief Minister, Mehrotra said irregularities to the tune of Rs 1,400 crore were detected which was 34 percent of the total budget for construction of memorials and parks. "I have submitted my report to the Chief Minister in which 199 persons have been indicted," Mehrotra told the media persons. He said he had recommended filing of FIRs under the Prevention of Corruption Act and under section 409 of the IPC (criminal breach of trust by public servant) against 19 persons.
The 19 includes two former BSP ministers Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Babu Singh Kushwaha, former Joint Director of Mining SA Farooqui, former Managing Director of Rajkiya Nirmaan Nigam C P Singh and 15 engineers. CP Singh was also appointed as technical advisor to the Uttarakhand Chief Minister but was later dropped after his name surfaced in the above scam. For the remaining persons indicted in the report, the lokayukta recommended that their properties be probed and if these were found disproportionate to their known sources of income, FIRs should be lodged against them.
The 199 persons indicted by the lokayukta are two ex-BSP ministers, two former MlAs, a sitting MlA, five mining officers, 57 engineers of Nirman Nigam, five engineers of lDA, two advocates, eight people of the public, leaders of 20 consortiums, 60 representatives of supply firms and 37 accountants of RNN. Soon after assuming office, Akhilesh had asked the lokayukta to probe alleged irregularities and corruption in supply of pink sandstone from Mirzapur for the construction of memorials and parks during the BSP regime.