Mired in controversy for being allegedly involved in corruption and more recently, for bringing the Yogi government under a cloud over the recovery of `PETN’ from Assembly, Director of State Forensic Science laboratory (SFSl) Shyam Bihari Upadhaya was finally suspended on Monday.
Surprisingly, most top government officers were aware of Upadhyay’s dubious past of being involved in conspiracy and tampering evidences in several important cases while he was posted in Bihar and yet action against the rring official was inordinately delayed.
Confirming Upadhyay’s suspension, Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar revealed on Monday that during the period of suspension, the officer will be attached with his office.
Kumar informed that the government has also appointed Director, Vigilance, HC Awasthi as enquiry officer in the matter and after the report is submitte departmental action could be taken against Upadhyay.
The Home Secretary said that Upadhaya was removed after the government learnt that he tested the suspected `powder’ recovered from Assembly with an explosive detection kit which was past the expiry date. Earlier in his report, Upadhaya had said that the substance found was deadly PETN explosive.
However, the NIA after its investigation clearly said that the substance was not PETN and was Silicon Oxide and not an explosive.
The Home Secretary said that corruption charges were also probed against Upadhyay in Bihar while he served as Director there between February 2008 to August , 2010. The UP government has given sanction for his prosecution on the request of Bihar government in August 2014 and also ordered a CB-CID probe during Akhilesh regime against him.
Recently, it was also found that Upadhya submitted forged documents to procure a passport and was planning to leave the country to evade legal action. However, the Technical department got his passport cancelled and alerted the government about Upadhya’s plan after which he was suspended.