Maya ministers to be arrested

However,neither of them was found at their residence.

The SIB had obtained arrest warrants against the duo from the court of sessions judge on Thursday on the basis of evidence against them,said Deputy SP A P Gangwar,who is investigating the case.

Separate teams of SIB officials raided former Secondary Education Minister Rangnath Mishra’s house in Aurai area of Bhadohi district and former Small Scale Industries Minister Chandra Deo Ram Yadav’s place in Sidhari area of Azamgarh district between 3 and 3.30 am. The SIB teams,accompanied by local police units,searched the houses of the former ministers,but could not find them.

Gangwar said they had collected evidence against both ex-ministers,showing that they had accepted cut money for allocating fund to LACCFED for construction works. The evidence includes documents and statements of the subordinates of the former ministers and LACCFED officials who have been also named as accused in the scam.

In the matter against Rangnath Mishra,the SIB has collected files from Secondary Education Department which contain notings by him relating to selection of LACCFED as the executing agency for the construction work in the department. Besides,the SIB also has recorded statements of then secretary of Secondary Education Department,the joint directors in the concerned divisions and the district inspectors of schools. The officials reportedly told the investigating officers that Mishra never asked for their views before taking the decision to appoint LACCFED as a working agency.

The then LACCFED chief engineer Govind Sharan Srivastava,executive engineer D K Sahu and public relation officer (PRO) Praveen Singh had alleged during interrogation that a cut money of Rs 3 crore was given to Mishra in advance to get a contract for construction of buildings for high schools in the state. The money was allegedly withdrawn from LACCFED’s account at Punjab National Bank branch in Lucknow. All the three are currently lodged in jail.

The Secondary Education Department was in process of allocating fund to government construction agencies for construction of school buildings under Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan scheme. Both,Srivastava and Sahu claimed that Praveen Singh had allegedly struck the deal for getting fresh work from the department and he was the one who handed over the cut money. The LACCFED earlier got construction work for 25 high school buildings for which the department had allocated fund of Rs 14.53 crore. During interrogation,Praveen Singh said the cut money of Rs 3 crore was later returned as they failed to get an order with the then Chief Secretary Anoop Mishra revising or cancelling it saying the LACCFED could not procure any fresh work .

Singh also had claimed that the money was handed over to then chairman Sushil Katiyar,who kept Rs 30 lakh and gave Rs 5 lakh to him. The remaining amount of Rs 2.65 crore was given to executive engineer DK Sahu who took responsibility of getting an order issued from the government for LACCFED to get fresh work.

The money was never returned to LACCFED account,SIB sources said.

The arrest warrant against former minister Chandra Deo Ram Yadav was obtained on the basis of his personal secretary SP Srivastava’s statement who reportedly said the minister had allegedly taken cut money of Rs 2 crore from LACCFED officials. The SIB had also the statements of Srivastava and LACCFED executive engineer SK Singh recorded in court.

LACCFED PRO Praveen Singh had alleged during interrogation that Chandra Deo Ram and his personal secretary SP Srivastava were given Rs 2 crore as cut money in return for granting fund to LACCFED for construction work from the department. the money was also withdrawn from LACCFED’s account.

As LACCFED was not allocated any work,Praveen Singh filed a complaint with Additional Director General (Law & Order) Jagmohan Yadav in June,seeking police help to get the money back from the former minister.

The LACCFED got back Rs 38 lakh which was handed over by Srivastava.

Another former minister appears for questioning

Former Agriculture Minister Choudhary Laxmi Narayan,who earlier summoned for questioning on October 12,appeared before the SIB officials on Friday in connection with the allegation against him for receiving kickbacks in return for allocating work to LACCFED. The LACCFED was allocated Rs 2.43 crore from Choudhary’s department for construction of three fertiliser quality control laboratries. An SIB official said Choudhary sought more time to go through the documents related to the work allocated to LACCFED before replying to the queries. He has been given six working days.