A tale of two cases and an ‘untouched’ CMO

Both cases were registered at the Wazriganj police station in Lucknow after investigation into the murder of Dr B P Singh,Chief Medical Officer of Family Welfare in Lucknow,reportedly threw up instances of financial irregularities.

On April 5,Dr Rajendra Singh,Director (Administration) in the Directorate General of Family Administration,lodged an FIR regarding the financial irregularities that took place in the financial year 2010-11. He named Deputy CMO Sachan,Administrative Officer Chandrajeet Yadav and senior clerk Prem Chandra Verma. On April 6,all three were arrested. Later,clerk Sanjay Anand and two contractors Gauri Shankar and Ravindra Singh were also arrested.

On April 7,Rajendra Singh lodged another FIR regarding financial irregularities that took place in the financial year 2009-10. This time,he named Sachan and AK Shukla,then CMO (Health) of Lucknow.

During investigation,four persons arrested in the first case — barring Yadav and Verma — and Dinesh Singh,a contractual employee,were found involved. Dinesh Singh was also arrested.

The only accused who was never arrested,nor questioned,was Dr Shukla who is now joint director in the health directorate.

Asked why Dr Shukla had not been arrested,sub-inspector S Raheem,who is investigating both cases,refused to give reasons.

“We are investigating the case,I don’t want to share any details. The chargesheet has not been filed yet,” sub-inspector Raheem said.

In the FIRs,Rajendra Singh said several irregularities were made in the health department records under various heads. In both cases,major discrepancies were found in the use of vehicles for National Rural Health Mission activities. Vehicles were not used at all and fake bills were raised. In the first case,anomalies were also found in bills pertaining to medicines.

Both cases were registered under Section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant),419 (cheating,personation),420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property),467 (forgery of valuable security,will,etc),468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the IPC.

Except Sachan and P C Verma,all are out on bail,said the investigating officer. Sachan’s advocate Aditya Singh said his bail application was listed for hearing on July 7.