Lucknow Special Crime Branch (SCB) unit of the CBI on Saturday arrested GK Batra,the managing director of the state government-owned public sector unit in the case of financial irregularities in the purchase of computers for hospitals across the state and the CMO offices under the NRHM scheme. The PSU - Shreeton India Ltd - had purchased computers worth Rs 8 crore from two private firms - Axis Marketing Ltd of Delhi and Noida and Radheyshyam Enterprises of Lucknow. The scanning of the documents revealed that exorbitant rates were quoted for the purchase of the computers causing a loss of about Rs 2.93 crore to the government exchequer. The owners of the two private firms Neeraj Upadhyay of Axis and Virendra Goyal of Radheyshyam,are being interrogated and are likely to be arrested,said a senior CBI official. They are also being questioned to know their links with former BSP minister Babu Singh Kushwaha and senior officials in the government looking after NRHM work,sources said. The CBI official also said that Batra was arrested after he failed to provide any evidence to corroborate that he was not involved in the financial irregularities in the procurement of computers. He was being interrogated since a search was conducted at his house and the office on Thursday. The CBI had registered a case against Batra and the owners of the Lucknow and Delhi-based firms on January 2 after they were found guilty in the preliminary enquiry in the purchase of 951 computers. The CBI official added that State Health Society had handed over the responsibility of procuring the computers to Shreeton. The agency had paid money in advance to the two private firms even before the tender was invited for the procurement work. The probe had found that the owners of the firms had quoted high rates to earn the profit unethically. The scanning of the documents and the interrogation of Batra and the owners of the two firms confirmed the trio allegedly was involved in allegedly drawing about Rs 2.93 crore from the NRHM fund for their own use. The CBI has already seized documents related to the bank accounts,lockers,property and other purchases made by Batra,Upadhyay and Goyal and their close family members to corroborate the financial irregularities done by them,the CBI sources confirmed.
