CBI files first chargesheet in NRHM case

According to the chargesheet, five former UP government officials — among others — have misappropriated Rs 13.4 crore, 68% of the NRHM funds meant to upgrade 134 district hospitals in Uttar Pradesh.

The CBI filed the first chargesheet in the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam on Tuesday.

According to the chargesheet, five former UP government officials — among others — have misappropriated Rs 13.4 crore, 68% of the NRHM funds meant to upgrade 134 district hospitals in Uttar Pradesh.

HT Image

The officials were working with the state Construction & Design Services (C&DS), a unit of the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam. Among them are then C&DS general manager PK Jain and project manager BN Srivastav.

The chargesheet, filed in a Ghaziabad court, also indicts two private firms — Ghaziabad-based Surgicoin Mediquip private limited and its director Naresh Grover, and Lucknow-based Modern Interiors and its owner RK Singh.

“The accused C&DS officials violated all rules and used forged documents to give the two firms the charge of upgrading the 134 district hospitals,” said a CBI officer. “Probe revealed that the officials had misappropriated 68% of the funds earmarked for the upgrade, causing a loss of R7.94 crore to the state exchequer.”

The CBI’s earlier estimate of the loss caused to the exchequer in the case was Rs 5.46 crore.

The accused have been charged with criminal conspiracy, breach of trust, fraud and forgery. Earlier, the agency arrested UP’s former family welfare minister Babu Singh Kushwaha and former BSP legislator Ram Prasad Jaiswal. The two of them will be named in a supplementary chargesheet, the officer said.