By IANS
Lucknow : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Monday recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the large-scale police recruitment scam during the tenure of the previous state government led by Mulayam Singh Yadav.
The decision for the CBI probe was taken at a state cabinet meet, where Mayawati pointedly accused Mulayam Singh’s brother Shivpal Singh Yadav of blatant corruption in the recruitment process.
Shortly after she became chief minister last May, Mayawati sacked over 18,000 of the 22,000 constables who were recruited during the Samajwadi Party regime.
“Serious violations were committed in the recruitment process and there was free flow of money, bribery and corruption in which the then public works minister (Shivpal Yadav) and the then director general of police were neck deep,” the chief minister said later at a press conference here.
“And considering that a powerful minister of the earlier regime and the then state police chief were closely associated with the entire exercise, I thought it best to entrust the probe to an independent agency like the CBI so that our government cannot be accused of political motivations,” she said.
“A letter has already been sent to the central government in this regard,” Mayawati added.
Justifying her move, she said: “This also comes as a fulfilment of my election promise to the people of the state that I would get all irregularities and corrupt practices of the previous regime properly investigated so that the guilty could be brought to book.”
Interestingly, while she had sacked 1,800 newly recruited constables, Mayawati reinstated 25 IPS officers who were initially suspended for their involvement in the recruitment scam.
Mayawati’s move comes close on the heels of her last week’s decision to press for a CBI probe into a controversial CD allegedly released by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders ahead of the last state assembly polls.
BJP president Rajnath Singh and senior leader Lalji Tandon were charge-sheeted for their involvement in the release of the CD, which was said to be communally inflammatory.