HC takes state govt,CBI to task

The Bench of Justices Ashwini Kumar Singh and Imtiyaz Murtaza summoned Principal Secretary (Medical and Health) Sanjay Agrawal and questioned him about the reasons for the delay in taking a decision on CBI’s request for sanctions to prosecute 22 government officials — 20 of them doctors — in the two cases of fraud in NRHM in Lucknow.

The court also took the CBI to task for not submitting a status report on the progress in the investigation of the two murders,which took place within six months of each other in 2010 and 2011.

The agency is investigating all these matters on the orders of the High Court. On May 28,the CBI had sought two months’ time to complete the investigastion and a Bench of Justices Imtiyaz Murtaza and Vishnu Chandra Gupta had fixed the matter for today.

The court today ordered Agrawal to take a final decision on the CBI request by August 29 and inform the court accordingly. It directed the CBI to file a status report on the two murder cases the same day.

Earlier in the morning,the CBI team probing the NRHM cases informed the court that they had sought sanction to prosecute 22 accused from the state medical and health department in June. The CBI said they could not file the chargesheets in the two cases because of the state’s delay in granting the sanctions.

Taking cognizance of the CBI’s plea,the court ordered for personal appearance of Principal Secretary (Medical and Health) before the court by 2 pm.

The IOs in CMO murder cases informed the court verbally that the investigation in both cases was going on and that they needed more time. Taking the IOs to task,the court ordered them to submit a status report,along with an affidavit within 48 hours.

After 2 pm,Agrawal appeared before the court and produced details of the process going on regarding the CBI’s request. He sought two weeks’ time to take a decision,but the court fixed a deadline of August 29.

The CBI,too,was given a deadline of August 29 to file a status report in the CMO murder cases.

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had ordered CBI investigation into Lucknow NRHM scam and murders of two CMOs on July 27 last year on a PIL filed by lawyer Prince Lenin.

The CBI has already filed supplementary chargesheets in CMO murder cases and three accused,including two shooters and a conspirator,are lodged in jail. Other accused in the murder cases — Deputy CMO Y S Sachan had died in Lucknow jail on June 22 last year and Dr A K Shukla was arrested by the CBI in May and later released on bail.

The bench rejected a petition,filed by Shukla,alleging that the CBI probe was not in keeping with the legal norms.Dr Shukla’s counsel Nandit Srivastava said he had accused the CBI of harassing him by calling in the night for interrogation and keeping him waiting for hours. He also alleged in the petition that the CBI detained him for three days,but did not interrogate him,Srivastava said.