information about Pradeep Shulk.
Answers
Hey Friends,
________________________________________________________
Senior IAS officer Pradeep Shukla was on Thursday arrested in Lucknow by the CBI for his alleged involvement in the Rs 5,700-crore National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam. Later, the CBI court in Ghaziabad granted the central probe agency 7-day remand of Shukla.
Shukla, who had been mission director of NRHM from February 2009 till April 2011, was first detained at Lucknow's Amausi airport when he landed there at 6.20 am, having taken a Jet Airways flight (9W 2237) from New Delhi. CBI sleuths then took him to their crime branch office at Cooperative Bhawan, barely 100 metres away from the NRHM office. He was grilled for five hours and then arrested.
Shukla, a politically well-connected 1981-batch IAS officer, had been named in three FIRs lodged on January 19 this year in New Delhi but had so far only been questioned. But last week the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court pulled up the investigating agency after a PIL questioned CBI's pick and choose approach in its arrests. The PIL quoted TOI reports which highlighted how the big fish were roaming free while the CBI had netted only the small fish.
On Thursday, Shukla was arrested on the basis of the first of the three FIRs, which refers to alleged criminal conspiracy among officials of the Department of Health and Family Welfare, UP government, officers of UP Processing & Construction Cooperative Federation Ltd (PACCFED) and directors of three private firms based at Moradabad and Gajraula in UP.
This FIR deals with contracts awarded to upgrade 89 district-level hospitals at an estimated cost of Rs 89 crore. The loss to the government exchequer is pegged at Rs 25 lakh per hospital, which works out to a total loss of Rs 22.25 crore. However, the CBI on the basis of payments made so far, has uncovered a loss of Rs 5.89 crore.
According to CBI sources, Shukla allegedly roped in PACCFED for the hospital upgrade, which is said to have flouted norms in allotting the work.
Other than Shukla, those named in the FIR include PACCFED MD VK Chaudhary, its chief engineer MM Tripathi, former director general (health and family welfare) SP Ram and director general (health and family welfare) RR Bharti. Of them, CBI had only arrested SP Ram.
Shukla took over as mission director of NRHM in February 2009 and continued till April 2011. During this time, Babu Singh Kushwaha was the family welfare minister. Shukla was removed after Kushwaha and health minister Anant Mishra resigned taking moral responsibility following the murder of second CMO, family welfare, Dr BP Singh, on April 2. Earlier, CMO family welfare Dr VK Arya had been murdered on October 27, 2010. The two murders were linked to the NRHM Scam, which till now has claimed six lives. Since April 2011, Shukla had been posted as member, revenue board.
After Shukla’s arrest on Thursday, he was taken to New Delhi on Indigo’s 2.50 pm flight (6E 309). Interestingly, on board the same flight was his wife, Aradhana Shukla, also a senior IAS officer. Shukla was then produced in the CBI court at Ghaziabad.
Sources said CBI got into a flurry of activity and first arrested former Lucknow CMO Dr AK Shukla on Sunday midnight and then Pradeep Shukla, fearing rebuke in the high court. The court is slated to review the progress of the probe on May 28 and has asked the CBI to produce its case diaries.
CBI's functioning had been questioned not only for the slow pace of investigation but also for not going after the big fish involved in the scam. Before Pradeep Shukla, the last high-profile arrest was that of former minister in Mayawati cabinet, Babu Singh Kushwaha, who was picked up on March 3, the last day of polling for UP assembly elections.
Sources also confirmed that CBI had been on the lookout for Shukla for the past two days but had been unable to track down the senior IAS officer. Finally, on Thursday, they got information that Shukla was taking a morning flight from New Delhi to Lucknow. It was after this that the CBI slueths swung into action and nabbed him.
Hope it's help you!!!!!
______________________________________________________