Evading questioning for long after former UP family welfare minister Babu Singh Kushwaha's arrest, the 1981-batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre was detained while on his way to the airport, official sources said.
55-year-old Shukla was named in the first case registered in NRHM scam in which it was alleged that officials of Uttar Pradesh Health Department entered into criminal conspiracy with officers of UP Processing and Construction Cooperative Federation Ltd. (PACCFED) and Directors of three private firms based at Moradabad and Gajraula (all of UP).
The allegations pertained to awarding of contract of upgradation of 89 district level hospitals involving an amount of Rs 89 crore.
The estimated loss to government exchequer was pegged at around Rs 25 lakh per hospital thereby resulting in loss of Rs 22.5 crore.
He was brought to the national capital and would be produced before a designated court in Ghaziabad tomorrow, the sources said.
Shukla, who was Principal Secretary Family Welfare in the state government during the tenure of Kushwaha, has been named in two other cases registered by the CBI while probing alleged irregularities in central funds meant for NRHM.
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The total cost of projects in which these three cases have been registered is over Rs 250 crore and mainly deal with the construction and upgradation works in hospitals across UP.
Kushwaha, who is already lodged in jail for his alleged involvement in the scam, has levelled allegations against Shukla for being among the officials who signed the papers for fictitious payments.