Lucknow: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has conducted raids in several districts of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday. So far, the CBI has raided 40 places in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and West Bengal. In this quick raid, a scam of Rs 407 crore has been exposed. In these raids, CBI has recovered gold bricks, diamonds, fixed deposit receipts worth one crore, property documents as well as cash worth lakhs from the houses of engineers, contractors, and relatives of an IAS officer in Meerut.
Documents related to cash, valuables, and properties have been seized from 125 people including eight officers. The accused have been asked to produce evidence related to the purchase of gold and diamonds. The Gomti Riverfront project was constructed in Gomtinagar, Lucknow between 2012 and 2017 under the Akhilesh government. The SP government had sanctioned 1,513 crores for the Gomti River Front, out of which only 60 per cent of work was done even after the release of 1,437 crores.
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The institutions working for the Gomti Riverfront did not complete the work even after spending 95 per cent of the budget. In the CBI investigation, 190 people, including 16 administrative officers, have been accused. In May 2017, the Yogi Adityanath government had recommended a CBI inquiry on the basis of the report filed by retired judge Alok Kumar Singh.
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CBI claims that the contractors and private firms to whom the construction work was allotted by the administrative officers, together have embezzled 407 crores. The CBI has also recovered Rs 75 lakhs in cash from the houses of five engineers of the Irrigation Department named in the FIR. The Anti-Corruption Wing (ACW) of the Lucknow unit of CBI conducted the raids after registering a fresh FIR against 190 people on Friday. Government officials and managers of manufacturing units have been named in the FIR.
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