The enforcement directorate (ED) on Wednesday attached properties worth Rs 200 crore of former Uttar Pradesh minister Babu Singh Kushwaha, in connection with the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam.
The investigative agency alleged contracts were rigged at the behest of the former family welfare minister. "Different supply orders were bagged by rigging the contract at the behest of then UP family welfare minister Shri Babu Singh Kushwaha who parted with a huge sum of NRHM funds," ED stated.
The directorate had registered a case in the matter in 2012. According to ED estimates, Rs 7.12 crore was defrauded and used to purchase prime properties in the name of companies, firms and individuals related to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
The market value of these properties was now said to be Rs 196 crore. ED attached these properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. One of the attached properties is in Karol Bagh, Delhi, and several others were in Lucknow.
This comes after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said it would soon be examining former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati in connection with the alleged swindling of funds in implementation of the centrally funded NRHM.
Mayawati had on Tuesday accused the Centre of misusing CBI, after the agency decided to question her nearly four years after the scam had surfaced. She said the move reeked of "political vendetta".
The scam was an alleged scandal between 2007 and 2012, in which senior politicians and bureaucrats were alleged to have siphoned off a massive sum from the NRHM.
