Lucknow: Tightening its probe into the Rs 2,400-crore scam in the construction of monuments in Lucknow and Noida during the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) regime, the Uttar Pradesh Vigilance Establishment (Vigilance) will question 20 more officials of various departments under the then government, including mining, housing and the Rajkiya Nirman Nigam, after Janmastami. A list of questions has been prepared and notices have been sent to these officers.
The officers, who have been called one by one by the Vigilance Office, include those who were posted in government departments during the time of the scam and some of them have also retired. According to sources, charge sheets will also be filed against some of the accused.
The Vigilance Office had recently questioned 20 other officials, including two cabinet ministers of the then BSP government, Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Babu Singh Kushwaha. On the basis of their answers, the 20 more officers will also be questioned. It is also being said that this action is being taken in view of the 2022 assembly elections in the state. People are also wondering why no was action taken in the last four-and-a-half years.
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In its investigation report submitted to the government May 20, 2013, the Lokayukta had named a total of 199 people as accused. So far, 23 accused have been arrested and sent to jail. In 2014, on the basis of this report, the responsibility of investigation was entrusted to the Vigilance Establishment. In January 2014, following which an FIR were lodged against 19 named and other unidentified persons, including former ministers Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Babu Singh Kushwaha, at Lucknow's Gomtinagar police station. The investigation is being done on the basis of this FIR.
At the same time, a charge sheet was also filed against six officers in October 2020. Along with Vigilance, the Enforcement Directorate too is investigating the matter. The Enforcement Directorate had registered a case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act in the monuments construction scam and the attached properties of engineers and contractors in Lucknow.
The Vigilance Office has arrested the mastermind of the scam, the then financial consultant Vimalkant Mudgal, general manager technical SK Tyagi, general manager Sodik Krishna Kumar and unit in-charge Kameshwar Sharma. However, efforts were laos made by senior officers to save them
It is learnt that the prosecution did not present any concrete evidence against these former officers due to which Mudgal, Tyagi and Sharma were granted bail by the court last week. Krishna Kumar died of illness while in jail. However, the investigating officers say that all the accused have got bail on medical grounds.
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The investigation revealed that that stones, claimed to have been brought from Rajasthan for the construction of the monuments, were actually brought from Mirzapur and that too at double the rate and submission of bogus transportation bills.
There were huge irregularities in the prices of the stones and their transportation. On July 9, 2007, the then Mining Minister Babu Singh Kushwaha had instructed the officers to install pink stones of Mirzapur sandstone in the construction of the monuments. There was a meeting of the purchase committee that constituted to fix the rates, which was attended many senior officers.
The committee formed a consortium to buy blocks of Mirzapur sandstone and fixed a rate of Rs 150 per cubic feet. To this, the rates of supply were fixed by adding Rs 20 per cubic feet for loading.
In addition to these rates, royalty and trade tax were paid extra, while the market price of these stones at that time was not more than Rs 50 to 80 per cubic feet.
