From investment limelight to graft cloud: High-profile UP official under probe

“Following suspension, a departmental inquiry as well as a vigilance inquiry have been ordered,” a senior government official told The Indian Express.

While these actions have stalled Prakash’s rapid rise to higher echelons of bureaucracy, officials told The Indian Express they could also lead to a scrutiny of more project clearances awarded under Prakash’s watch.

The Opposition, meanwhile, has targeted the state government’s “zero tolerance” on corruption. “This (the corruption allegation) is the truth of investment claims in UP,” SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said. Both SP and Congress have demanded that the investigation should also cover clearances given to projects over past three years since the BJP government retained power in the state.

Prakash did not respond to requests from The Indian Express for comment. UP Industrial Development Minister Nand Gopal Gupta also did not respond to requests for comment.

Hailing from Bihar, Prakash’s rise in UP’s bureaucracy has been rapid: DM of Lakhimpur Kheri (2011), Bareilly (2012), Aligarh (2014) and Bundelkhand (2018), apart from Lucknow during Covid years; Special Secretary in Health and later Home departments in between (2015 and 2017, respectively); and, Vice Chairman of Lucknow Development Authority.

He was given charge of the state’s investment portfolio in 2022 after the state polls, with the state government declaring within months that commitments worth nearly Rs 34 lakh crore had been made at UP Global Investors Summit in February 2023.

However, the project that triggered a probe against Prakash pertains to clearances for a solar project to be set up in the state.

According to officials, the ball was set rolling by a letter sent to Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Singh by a man identified as Biswajit Dutta, an employee of Punjab-based Sael Solar P6 Pvt Ltd, complaining that a “commission of 5%” was allegedly being sought for clearance and Cabinet approval to set up a solar project. Later, an FIR was lodged by Dutta based on the complaint followed by the arrest of an alleged Lucknow-based middleman identified as Nikhant Jain.

According to the complaint, Dutta alleged that his group had sent an online application to the office of Invest UP to set up a unit of a solar cell and energy parts manufacturing plant. Further, he alleged that a meeting of an evaluation committee was held in which the application was recommended for approval.

The complainant also alleged that “a senior officer of Invest UP” then gave them the “number of a private person, Mr Jain” and asked them to speak to him for a go-ahead that would lead to immediate approval by an empowered committee and the Cabinet.

According to the complainant, Jain allegedly demanded “5% commission” for the project and asked for money in advance. The complainant claimed they refused to entertain Jain’s request. Later, they came to know that despite initial recommendation, clearance for their application has been postponed, the complainant alleged.

The complainant, Dutta, did not respond to a request for comment from The Indian Express.

Soon after the FIR late on Friday evening, Jain was arrested under sections 308(5) of BNS and 7,12,13 of Prevention of Corruption Act at Gomti Nagar Police Station in Lucknow. Government officials also confirmed that action was taken against Prakash following this complaint although the FIR does not mention his name while the complaint refers only to “a senior officer of Invest UP”.

The latest action, meanwhile, revived another allegation regarding alleged irregularities in sale and purchase of land notified in the Lucknow node of UP Defence Corridor in 2020, when Prakash was DM. “The Defence Corridor case is a different inquiry. At present, the disciplinary inquiry and vigilance inquiry is into the current allegation about seeking a commission for setting up a solar project,” a senior official said.