E-Paper
NH 74 scam: Rs 5 crore deposited in Uttarakhand Congress’s election account
The special investigation team (SIT) probing the NH 74 scam has found that Rs 5 crore was deposited in the election account of the Uttarakhand Congress
The special investigation team (SIT) probing the NH 74 scam has found that Rs 5 crore was deposited in the election account of the Uttarakhand Congress, said Udham Singh Nagar senior superintendent of police Sadanand Date who is supervising the inquiry.
The account was opened in December 2016 to accept donations for the Congress to manage campaign for the 2017 assembly elections.
In the NH 74 scam, compensation was paid to farmers for their agricultural land at commercial rates, leading to misappropriation of around Rs 300 crore.
The SIT has found that five farmers, who had got compensation, deposited Rs 5 crore in the election bank account of the Congress through RTGS, Date said. The amount includes Rs 29 lakh deposited by Priya Sharma who was the managing director of Allied Infra and has been jailed in the NH 74 scam for fraud.
The questioning of former Congress state president Kishore Upadhayay this year in connection with the scam established that it was a genuine account of the Congress and not an individual one.
“The transactions are under scanner and we will go to the depth of the matter,” the SSP said.
BJP state general secretary Gajraj Singh Bisht said the transactions to the account exposed the “murky dealings” of the Congress. “We hope that further investigations would expose the truth about the dealings of the Congress,” he said.
Congress state general secretary Khajan Pandey said, “The transactions have taken place in a legal manner and the party is ready to face any probe in the matter.”
