The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three people including two senior government officials in relation to the multi-crore scam National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in Uttar Pradesh.
The arrested are former Director General of the Family Welfare department, S.P. Ram, former managing director, UP State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC), Abhay Kumar Vajpayee and an owner of a private firm Saurabh Jain.
"We arrested Abhay Kumar Vajpayee, the former UP State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC) managing director, on Thursday night; and then S P Ram, former director general, family welfare, and Sourav Jain, owner of a private firm, on Friday morning," the Economic Times quotes as saying by a CBI official.
According to media reports, Ram and Vajpayee were arrested for their alleged irregularities in awarding tenders to medical suppliers and builders and sanctioning the procurement of medical supplies from Kanpur-based wholesale suppliers, respectively.
In the chargesheet filed by CBI, its alleged that Rs 13.4 crore was given to Construction and Design Services, a unit of UP Jal Nigam, for the upgrade work of 134 districts hospitals under the NRHM.
However, the work was sub-let to a Ghaziabad-based firm by means of fake and forged documents.
Earlier, on Wednesday, in an effort to expose the NRHM scam, CBI raided around 45 places across the state, including the former Bahujan Samaj Party leader Babu Singh Kushwaha's house.
