NRHM Scam: accused officer dies mysteriously

NRHM scam probe in Uttar Pradesh has taken a twist as the Project Officer of the UP Jal Nigam, an accused in the multi-crore scam died mysteriously on Monday. State police said that the officer Sunil Verma allegedly committed suicide at his Lucknow residence by shooting himself with his licenced revolver. According to the police, Verma shot himself around 8.30 AM and was rushed to hospital where he died. Verma was named in the first FIR filed in the scam in which former Minister Babu Singh Kushwaha was also named. According to his family sources, the CBI had carried out searches at his residence on 4th January after which he had been under depression. Verma was the project engineer with the construction and design service of the UP Jal Nigam.

This is the fourth mysterious death related to the scam with the murder of two Chief Medical Officers (CMO) and a Deputy CMO, who was found dead inside the jail hospital in Lucknow. CBI has said that he was yet to be questioned in connection with the scam. He is an accused in the case in connection with irregularities in up-gradation of primary health centres. The Allahabad High Court had directed the CBI to inquire into the misuse of NRHM funds following these murders. CBI, probing the scam, has been carrying out searches at the houses of various officials, including bureaucrats and businessmen associated with the family welfare department. The CAG has in a report strongly indicted the state's health and family welfare department functionaries, middlemen and contractors for allegedly guzzling Rs 5,700 crore of the Rs 8,657 crore released between 2005 and 2011 under NRHM.