Is the Modi government promoting corruption? How CVC and Health ministry together closed corruption cases that CBI had confirmed
How CVC and Health ministry together closed corruption cases that CBI had confirmed
The Central Vigilance Commission and the health ministry in tandem closed four corruption cases involving senior officials. This, despite the fact that CBI had investigated the cases and found illegalities. The cases were closed in violation of the regulations. The Union health minister Mr J P Nadda had earlier asked for suspension of these investigations
Express investigation: Chhattisgarh land grab
The Central Vigilance Commission and the health ministry in tandem closed four corruption cases involving senior officials. This, despite the fact that CBI had investigated the cases and found illegalities. The cases were closed in violation of the regulations. The Union health minister Mr J P Nadda had earlier asked for suspension of these investigations
Express investigation: Chhattisgarh land grab
Four cases of alleged
high-level corruption involving senior officials of the All India Institute of
Medical Sciences in Delhi have been recommended for closure by the Central
Vigilance Commission in 2016-’17, in violation of regulations. The commission is an
independent body that is meant to investigate and make recommendations on cases
of corruption involving central government officials. But it closed these cases
going by the advice of the Union health ministry, ignoring the rules that
clearly define other institutions and officials as the competent authority to
shut such cases.
After conducting
detailed investigations in these cases, the Central Bureau of Investigation had
recommended different levels of action against the AIIMS officials. It had
found that rules had been broken or there was clear evidence of corruption in
all the four cases. In one instance, even
decisions of previous health ministers were overturned to close the case. The vigilance
commission also allowed one of the officials accused in these corruption cases
– MC Mishra, the director of AIIMS – to sit in judgement on the performance of
an officer, Sanjiv Chaturvedi, who had initiated the investigations in the
first place. The deputy director of AIIMS under Mishra, Mishra himself, and the
Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare consequently gave a “zero rating”
to Chaturvedi in January 2017 for the year 2015-’16 – the year Chaturvedi had
continued to investigate allegations of corruption at AIIMS, Delhi. In 2014,
Nadda, then only an MP, had asked for the closure of all these investigations
and the removal of Chaturvedi as the investigating officer.
A zero rating of an
All India Services officer, such as Chaturvedi, can lead to various levels of
action that are detrimental to the officer’s career. All officials accused
in these cases have consistently claimed innocence. Scroll.in reviewed
the records of these cases with the Central Vigilance Commission, CBI, AIIMS
and the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The ministry did not
respond to detailed queries. The Central Vigilance
Commission did not reply to specific queries and instead said, “These cases
were examined in the Commission and taken to their logical conclusion at the
appropriate level. Since each of the cases involves other officers, it would be
inappropriate to furnish the details, keeping in view their own privacy rights
and confidentiality of the reports of the various investigating agencies.” see more:
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in the hill state. Hridayesh Joshi reports how farcical public hearings are
being held to get the project an environmental clearance:
