The CBI, late on Sunday night, finally arrested former Lucknow CMO A.K. Shukla in connection with the murder cases of his predecessors — Dr Vinod Arya and Dr B.P. Singh — both of whom were shot dead while on morning walk.
A team of CBI officials arrived in Lucknow on Sunday evening and Dr Shukla was summoned around 11 pm for interrogation and an hour later, he was formally taken into custody.
Dr A.K. Shukla was produced in court on Monday that sent him to judicial custody after rejecting his bail application.
According to CBI sources, Dr Shukla is said to be involved in the murder of Dr Vinod Arya, who was shot dead near his Vikas Nagar residence on October 27, 2010. After Dr Arya was posted as CMO family welfare, he refused to accept the recommendations of Dr A.K. Shukla in allotment of contracts.
Dr B.P. Singh, who succeeded Dr Arya, was eliminated in a similar manner on April 2, 2011 near his Gomti Nagar residence.
According to the CBI, the alleged motive behind the murders was the fear of being exposed for misappropriation of funds in the NRHM schemes.
Dr Shukla, who had high connections in the Mayawati government, was earlier arrested by the CBI last year in connection with the NRHM scam, but was granted bail by the Allahabad high court.
The agency claimed that evidence also indicated that former deputy chief medical officer Y.S. Sachan, whose mysterious death inside Lucknow jail on June 22, 2011, created a sensation, could have been a co-conspirator in the murders of the two CMOs.
However, the Lucknow police, after the two murders, had blamed gangster Abhay Singh for the killings and had arrested three shooters reportedly responsible for executing the crime. Later, the police sheepishly claimed that Abhay Singh was not involved in the murders.
The CBI is now investigating the role of UP police is “misleading investigations” and some IPS and PPS officers are under its scanner.
“We are trying to investigate why the police deliberately botched up investigations and on whose instructions, the cops tried to paint a different picture,” said a CBI official.
It may be recalled that the court in July last year had directed the CBI to probe the murders of the two CMOs , the death of deputy CMO and also irregularities in implementation of the NRHM.