NRHM scam death list swells to five

Varanasi, Feb.16 (ANI): The number of people who have died because of their alleged links to the National Rural Health Mission scam has risen to five with the death of the deputy chief medical officer of Varanasi.

Shailesh Yadav, , who was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the NRHM scam in Uttar Pradesh, has died in what police claimed was a road accident.

However, eyewitness accounts tell a different story altogether and the timing of the accident has also raised eyebrows.

Yadav was grilled by the CBI in connection with the '5,700-crore scam on Friday. On his way back to the Pindra health centre, to which Yadav was attached, he rammed his car into a stationary trailer parked on the roadside near a dhaba in the Babatpur area of Varanasi, police said.

He was rushed to a nearby private hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Eyewitnesses claim the trailer hit Yadav's car while he was trying to overtake.

Before Yadav, two chief medical officers Vinod Arya and B.P. Singh were shot dead and deputy CMO Y.S. Sachan died mysteriously in the hospital attached to the Lucknow central jail.

Sunil Verma, an NRHM project manager with the Construction and Design Services (CDS), shot himself with his licensed revolver at his residence in Vikasnagar, Lucknow.

After the scam surfaced, Mayawati had sacked health minister Anant Kumar Mishra and family welfare minister Babu Singh Kushwaha.

The CBI had arrested Abhay Vajpayee, director in UP health services, G. Ram, retired director general of health services, and Saurabh Jain, managing director of two medicine companies in Moradabad, in January. They are on judicial remand on the orders of the Sepcial CBI court in Ghaziabad.

Apart from the top officials in the medical and health department, the CBI is also questioning the CMOs of 72 districts from where the irregularities in NRHM funds have been reported. (ANI)