Inquiry against tainted officers may be dropped | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
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Inquiry against tainted officers may be dropped

None | By, Lucknow
Mar 21, 2006 01:19 AM IST

THE STATE government has reportedly directed the Vigilance establishment to close cases against Principal Secretary religious endowment Sunanda Prasad, LDA vice-chairman BB Singh, suspended Divisional Forest Officer DR Bansal and several others.

THE STATE government has reportedly directed the Vigilance establishment to close cases against Principal Secretary religious endowment Sunanda Prasad, LDA vice-chairman BB Singh, suspended Divisional Forest Officer DR Bansal and several others.

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The probe agency is in a dilemma as considerable progress has been made in all the cases. Even the agency had sought permission for prosecution of BB Singh, who has been facing vigilance probe for alleged irregularities during his posting in Kanpur.   

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The State government had referred Sunanda Prasad's case of alleged irregularities during her stint as Secretary, Women and Child Welfare in 1999 and Managing Director UP Finance Corporation in 1994-95 to the vigilance.

Interestingly, in Bansal's case, the vigilance officers are under pressure to change their own findings to protect him.However, the decision to close Bansal's case has alarmed the investigation officers as he was arrested after a through probe. Bansal was accused of massive financial bungling in the forest department. He had diverted funds to some fake NGOs in the names of his family members. Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav had also given sanction for a CBI probe in 2004, which is still pending.

However, now in a sudden volte face the government has directed the Vigilance to close the case. The SPs, who had prepared charge sheet against him, have now been asked to find out ways to bail him out.

“It is a tricky situation,” commented a senior IPS officer. He said if the records were changed Bansal could seek damages from the government for wrongly implicating him in the case.

The investigating officers have, however, no way out but to toe the dictated lines.

Sources said withdrawal of pending cases had become “an industry” in the state. A senior IAS officer alleged that the government had so far ordered withdrawal of nearly 2500 criminal cases, including those of murder, in the state.

It is learnt that the CB-CID has also not been lagging behind in withdrawal of criminal cases against members of the ruling party.

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