Crying foul, opposition parties in UP demanded a CBI inquiry into the alleged suicide by key accused in the multi-crore NRHM scam Verma, the fourth mysterious death in the case.
Crying foul, opposition parties in UP on Monday demanded a CBI inquiry into the alleged suicide by key accused in the multi-crore NRHM scam Sunil Verma, the fourth mysterious death in the case.
"As the victim is related to the NRHM scam which is being probed by the premier investigating agency which is also carrying out raids, the CBI should probe whether it is a suicide or not," Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh said in Lucknow.
"It is most unfortunate and we have doubts over police claims of suicide.... The scam is becoming murkier. We demand CBI inquiry," he said.
Seeing a sinister pattern in deaths of scam-accused persons in Uttar Pradesh, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said in Delhi, "It is extremely strange that in five years rule in the Uttar Pradesh, we have seen so many disappearances and deaths whenever any scam comes to fore. This is ... much more than an incident."
UPCC president Rita Bahuguna Joshi also demanded CBI probe into the alleged suicide.
Samajwadi Party spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said the case should also be brought in the ambit of the CBI inquiry .
"It is the fourth case and also indicates its magnitude and seriousness. If the probe continues in the right direction, it would reach the chief minister and her office," Chaudhary claimed.
The BJP chose to target the Congress wondering whether the CBI was deliberatly not catching the major political players in the case at the behest of the ruling party at the Centre.
"Who is protecting the big accused (in the scam). Why CBI has not taken any action against major political players. Congress has supported BSP and SP in the state to run governments. Is it on Delhi's directions that main accused are being protected," BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters in Delhi.
State BJP spokesman Vijay Pathak said that a high level inquiry should be ordered into the death of Verma.
Congress leader Digvijay Singh, however, attacked the BJP saying the party, which talks of curbing corruption, has made clear its intentions by taking the culprits of NRHM into its fold, an apparent reference to former UP minister Babu Singh Kushwaha.
The BJP reacted saying action should be taken against Kushwaha if he is guilty.
"But don't target one and leave the rest... his house was raided the very next day after he had decided to join BJP," Prasad said.
Sunil Verma, project manager in the Construction and Design Division of Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam, who was under CBI scanner in connection with the multi-crore National Rrural Health Mission scam, allegedly shot himself dead at his residence in Lucknow this morning.
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