The CBI raids in UP on Friday in connection with the NRHM scam were carried out on a tip-off provided by BSP MLA R.P. Jaiswal who had been interrogated in Delhi two days ago. Jaiswal, it is said, has agreed to spill the beans on the NRHM scam in UP.
According to sources, the medicine suppliers raided by the CBI are the ones who took verbal orders for supplies in hospitals and made inflated bills, a cut from which went to higher authorities.
Raids were conducted at the offices and premises of one Mahendra Pandey, said to be close to former minister Babu Singh Kushwaha, and Guddu Khan, a close associate of alleged mafia don Mukhtar Ansari.
“We were mere pawns in the whole game. We were asked to produce inflated bills and hand over the inflated amount to the authorities. If we had refused, we would not have got even a single contract,” said one of the medicine suppliers in Aminabad area who was raided on Friday.
A former health department official, meanwhile, disclosed that when the NRHM funds came in, ministers and top officers got their aides to turn into medicine suppliers overnight so that the booty could be shared among themselves without any problem.
The CBI, so far, has arrested five people in connection with the scam in UP. The arrested persons include G.K. Batra, managing director of a company which supplied instruments to government hospitals covered by NRHM; P.K. Jain, GM of Jal Nigam; Dr S.P. Ram, former director-general (medical and health and family welfare); Abhay Kumar Vajpayee, GM of UPSIC; and Saurabh Jain, drug supplier.