NRHM scam: Babu Singh Kushwaha, Ram Prakash Jaiswal arrested

LUCKNOW: Minutes after voting for the last phase of UP polls got over on Saturday, the CBI arrested state’s former health minister Babu Singh Kushwaha and BSP MLA Ram Prakash Jaiswal for their alleged involvement in the multi-core National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam.
Although the arrest of Kushwaha, who campaigned for BJP in UP, was on cards, the CBI’s action led political circles to speculate whether it was timed to prevent any positive fallout for the saffron outfit.Although not a full-scale member of the BJP yet, Kushwaha, who was a trusted aide of Mayawati till the other day, did surrogate campaigning for the party under the banner of his Jotiba Phule Manch. He painted himself as an innocent victim of a conspiracy against Kushwahas — the caste he belongs to.
The tactic appeared to be working, and Kushwaha’s arrest would have enhanced the advantage to the BJP.
BJP’s Kalraj Mishra said the timing of the arrest was truly intriguing. “It could not have been a last-minute decision surely. So, if the CBI had any evidence against the former minister why did it wait? The mystery needs to be cracked,” he said.
However, the CBI claimed that they have a strong case against Mayawati’s former health minister. CBI sources said that that the MLC conspired to siphon off Rs 5.46 crore from the Rs 13.4-crore scheme to upgrade 134 district hospitals under the NRHM.
It alleged that Kushwaha allotted the work without bidding to a Ghaziabad-based firm Surgicon Medi Equip Pvt Limted on the basis of false documents. The materials installed in the hospitals were later found to be of inferior/sub-standard quality.
'Mayawati to blame'
However, Kushwaha stoutly defended himself when he was produced before a special CBI court in Ghaziabad at 6pm, saying that he could not be blamed for awarding the contract to the firm. He said that the decisions were taken by a panel that was presided over by the CM or, in her absence, by the chief secretary. The former health minister also said that he would have got to preside over the deliberations of the committee only if both CM and chief secretary were not available and that no such occasion arose during his tenure.
On being asked by the court as to why he did not order action in the face of growing complaints of the corruption in the implementation of NRHM, Kushwaha said that he had come across only one such case, and he had promptly ordered action in that instance.
He also said that during his tenure, the funds for the NRHM came directly from the Centre.
CBI sources claimed that the Ghaziabad-based firm is directly related to Kushwaha.
The CBI had registered five cases on January 2 against certain government and private sector officials, including one against Kushwaha.
The agency is probing the embezzlement of NRHM funds to the tune of Rs 8,657 crore in UP on High Court’s directives. In its performance audit, the CAG has also found irregularities in the use of Rs 5,700 crore out of the Rs 8,657 crore released between 2005 and 2011 under the Central scheme.
The scam is seen as having taken lives of five persons, including that of two Chief Medical Officers, a deputy CMO, an assistant engineer and a clerk. The scam surfaced in last April when Lucknow’s chief medical officer (family welfare), B P Singh, was shot dead in the city. In October 2010, his predecessor Dr V K Arya had been killed in a similar manner.
It is alleged that both the murders were linked to the NRHM scam. After Singh was killed, police said deputy CMO Y S Sachan was the key accused in the scam and that he had masterminded both the murders.
Sachan was arrested with four other officials of the family welfare department. But things turned murkier when Sachan himself was found dead inside Lucknow Jail under judicial custody.
CBI sources added that a co-accused in the case, Sunil Verma (55), an assistant engineer in the Jal Nigam’s construction wing, who allegedly committed suicide at his Vikas Nagar residence by shooting himself in the head with his licenced revolver. In a three-paragraph suicide note, Verma stated he was deeply stressed by the CBI search at his house.