Naseemudeen Siddiqui, who was number two in Mayawati’s government and now enjoying status of leader of the Opposition in legislative Council, along with two more of his former cabinet colleagues Babu Singh Kushwaha and Rangnath Mishra, both languishing in jail for corruption, faced trouble when state government directed the sleuths of the Vigilance Establishment to go ahead and register case against them for Disproportionate Assets (DA) case.
Interestingly chief minister Akhilesh Yadav who directed the Vigilance officers to expedite the probe against about a dozen ministers in Mayawati government had already assured that all of them will be sent to jail if the probe found the allegations of corruption against them true. Both
Rangnath Mishra and Babu Singh Kushwaha and half a dozen other ministers in Bahujan Samaj Party were facing several enquiries regarding charges of corruption against them. Besides the said two, Badshah Singh, Chandra Dev Ram were already arrested and lodged in different jails.
According to official communiqué of the State government, the Vigilance sleuths were asked to register case under Section 13(1)E read with Section 13(2) of Anti-Corruption Act 1988 against Naseemudeen Siddiqui. Similar orders were also given against Babu Singh Kushwaha and
Rangnath Mishra. Earlier the probe against Siddiqui both by Vigilance as well as lokayukt Justice (retd) NK Mehrotra found that between March 27, 2007 till March 21, 2012 when BSP was in power, Siddiqui earned Rs 13,62,03,800 extra income than all of his known means.
Naseemudeen was also in trouble after his name reportedly surfaced in another multi-crore rupees scam in labour and Construction Co-operative Federation (lACCFED) in which over half a dozen minister in Mayawati's government were already summoned for interrogation while three of them were also arrested and send to jail.
Against Rangnath Mishra, whose establishments in lucknow, Allahabad and Bhadohi were already raided by Vigilance Establishment during probe of disproportionate assets cases, reportedly earned huge wealth than all his known resources of earning. His total earnings between May13, 2007 to October 5, 2011 when he was removed from the ministry on recommendations of lokayukt, is Rs 6.04.10.249 more than his earnings. Probe pointed that
former minister purchased a huge bungalow at prime location in Tagore Town area of Allahabad in 80 lakh, the circle rate of which was Rs over 1.33 crore at that time. In Bhadohi and adjoining areas also, Rangnath Mishra owned property worth over Rs 1.30 crore, the enquiry revealed.
Rangnath Mishra, the then secondary education minister had also alleged to have taken his `cut' (commission) to grant Rs 16 crore for construction of 25 upper primary schools and installation of signboards at Navodaya schools to labour and Construction Co-operative Federation
(lACCFED). The sleuths of the Special Investigation Bureau (SIB) of Cooperative Cell which is probing the matter, held him as one of the prime accused in the multi- crore rupees scam and arrested him along with two other former minister Chandra Dev Ram and Badshah Singh.
lastly government also asked to initiate proceedings against Babu Singh Kushwaha, who was in jail now for more than a year. Besides the charges of disproportionate assets, Kushwaha was found involved in multi-crore rupees scam in National Rural Health Mission and was arrested
while a similar probe was also going against him by sleuths of SIB in lACCFED scam.