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ED likely to register case in 10 days in SP-era livestock recruitment scam
A senior ED official confirmed that the agency was preparing to take up the case based on the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) investigation. The ED has sent an initial report to its Delhi headquarters and is examining the FIR and charge sheets to identify the alleged financial irregularities, beneficiaries and proceeds of crime.
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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is likely to register an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) within the next 10 days in the alleged recruitment scam involving 1,198 livestock extension officer posts during the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government in 2014. The move will pave the way for questioning former animal husbandry minister Raj Kishore Singh, retired IAS officer Yogesh Kumar and other accused.
A senior ED official confirmed that the agency was preparing to take up the case based on the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) investigation. The ED has sent an initial report to its Delhi headquarters and is examining the FIR and charge sheets to identify the alleged financial irregularities, beneficiaries and proceeds of crime.
“An ECIR is likely to be registered within the next 10 days. Notices will subsequently be issued to the persons concerned for questioning,” the official said.
The proposed action follows the EOW’s October 14 arrest of Yogesh Kumar, a 1980-batch IAS officer who was principal secretary of the animal husbandry department when the recruitment took place in 2014. The 72-year-old was arrested from Gomti Nagar in Lucknow. The EOW had also found evidence against the then minister Raj Kishore Singh, whose prosecution sanction was pending at the time.
The examination was held on February 2, 2014, for 1,198 posts across 17 divisions, excluding Saharanpur. A total of 1,005 candidates were selected, trained and appointed.
According to the EOW, recruitment rules were bypassed to facilitate centralised evaluation of optical mark recognition (OMR) answer sheets, allegedly allowing manipulation of marks and undermining divisional selection committees. On February 19, 2014, divisional additional directors, Grade II, had sought the department director’s approval to appoint an institution to evaluate answer sheets from all 17 divisions, citing financial and administrative difficulties.
Investigators alleged that the then director, Dr Rudra Pratap Singh, and other senior officials assigned the work to Feroze Gandhi Institute of Engineering and Technology in Rae Bareli, despite its alleged lack of prior experience in such evaluation. The contract was allegedly executed retrospectively in violation of recruitment rules.
The Livestock Extension and Poultry Development Service Rules, 2002, had been amended in 2013, during the recruitment process. The EOW alleged that prescribed provisions were disregarded under pressure from the then minister.
The state government ordered an SIT probe in December 2017, and an FIR was registered at the SIT police station in 2019 under IPC provisions relating to criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery, conspiracy and destruction of evidence, along with provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Of the 28 accused, six were originally named and 22 were subsequently identified. The EOW has filed charge sheets against 25, including Singh, Kumar and former department directors.
The ED is expected to question several divisional additional directors, Grade II, associated with the selection process and examine whether payments allegedly made by candidates reached officials or intermediaries. It will also scrutinise the financial transactions and assets of the accused to trace suspected proceeds of the scam.
Although the appointments came under scrutiny after the alleged irregularities surfaced, the government did not order mass termination of selected candidates. Some suspensions and transfers followed.
The ED is expected to begin recording statements and tracing the financial trail after registering the ECIR. Any further action will depend on the evidence gathered during the investigation.
