Health scam: Former CMO, Sachan booked

The CBI has booked former chief medical officer AK Shukla, now in jail, and the late former deputy CMO YS Sachan, who died mysteriously in prison, in the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam.

The CBI has booked former chief medical officer AK Shukla, now in jail, and the late former deputy CMO YS Sachan, who died mysteriously in prison, in the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam.

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The agency filed two cases in the scam after it found evidence indicating that there had been financial bungling by UP health department officials in connivance with contractors, CBI sources said.

The CBI alleged in the FIRs that officials in charge of funds from the Centre under the NRHM allegedly were hand-in-glove with contractors and made fraudulent reimbursement bills in the name of hiring vehicles and medicine purchase, agency sources said.

The annual central grant to the state on account of the NRHM is more than Rs3,000 crore.

The CBI has accused Shukla, Sachan, district administrative officer CJ Yadav and clerk PC Verma of cheating, criminal conspiracy, forgery among other charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act, they said.

On July 27, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad HC had directed the CBI to finish the investigation into the murders of two CMOs - BP Singh in April 2011 and VK Arya in October 2010 - and irregularities in the NRHM.