CBI files charges against Babu Singh Kushwaha

New Delhi: The CBI on Thursday filed a supplementary chargesheet against former Uttar Pradesh family welfare minister Babu Singh Kushwaha and former principal secretary of the department Pradeep Shukla in the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam case.

According to sources said the chargesheet was filed against Mr Shukla, former secretary of the Uttar Pradesh family welfare department, and Mr Kushwaha under charges of corruption and cheating at a special court in Ghaziabad. Mr Shukla was also the mission director of the National Rural Health Mission in Uttar Pradesh.

Sources said the charges were not filed against accused R.P. Jaiswal as he had passed away during the course of investigation. Sources said over 7,000 pages of documents had been annexed with the charge sheet as evidence. The first chargesheet was filed in the case on February 25, 2013.

The case pertains to alleged irregularities in the supply of 515 “first referral unit” kits and 2,050 “intra-uterine” kits worth Rs 31.59 crore under the NRHM. The UPA government had launched NRHM in 2005-06 in various states for providing better medical facilities to all citizens and vulnerable sections of the population.

The accused caused a loss of Rs 21.20 crore and made illegal gains in the process of implementing the scheme, the chargesheet has alleged.

Large scale irregularities in the implementation of NRHM in UP came to light after two CMOs — V.K. Arya and B.P. Singh — were shot in Lucknow within a period of six months in 2011.