The Yogi-led UP government’s anti-corruption plank suffers a blow as it braces to challenge the Allahabad High Court directive to the CBI to probe the role of former Ayush Minister Dharam Singh Saini others in the massive Ayush admission scam, writes Mudit Mathur
A single judge Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court, Justice Rajeev Singh, ordered the Director, CBI, to register a case and investigate the role of former Ayush Minister Dharam Singh Saini and the then Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) of the Ayush department, Prashant Trivedi, along with others after their names surfaced during the STF investigations exposing allegations of politico–bureaucratic nexus relating to massive fraud and high-level corruption in the corridors of power. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has always preached “zero tolerance” for crime and corruption, but the Ayush admission scam appears to have dealt a blow to the UP government’s clean image and its anti-corruption plank.
However, surprisingly, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to oppose the CBI investigation and decided to challenge the High Court order in the Supreme Court. The CBI is yet to register a case in the matter. The serious allegations for investigation surfaced against 1989 batch IAS officer, Prashant Trivedi at the fag-end of his unblemished career, just a month before his retirement. The unexpected development has triggered a panic among the top bureaucracy of the Yogi government. Soon after the court’s orders, Trivedi was divested of the important charge of Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) and was posted as chairman, UPSRTC.
Initially, when the scam came to light last year, the state government on November 8th, referred the Ayush admission anomalies scam for a CBI probe looking into its nation-wide ramifications. An official spokesperson had then revealed, “Following the orders from Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the case of anomalies in Ayush colleges admission has been referred to the CBI.” Now, a sudden change of stance of the government has deeply puzzled the political circles.
While granting bail to one of the 16 accused persons arrested following the investigation by the Special Task Force, which was formed to probe the matter, the High Court Bench took cognizance of the testimony of Dr Umakant, officer-in-charge of Ayurveda Directorate who was later inducted into Counselling Board, recorded under Section 161 Cr.P.C. in the present case. The court directed the CBI to conduct an investigation with regard to the revelations made by Dr Umakant about mal-practices adopted in the admission process of UG and PG courses in Ayush Department, in the year 2019. The case diary no. 20 highlighted high-level corruption and gross injustice to those candidates who actually succeeded in the NEET 2019 and 2022.
