Lucknow, August 20: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s campaign of zero tolerance against corruption has gained momentum. UP Police is looking for the accused involved in corruption and financial irregularities not only in the country but also abroad.
For the first time in the history of Economic Offences Wing (EOW), lookout notices have been issued against 16 accused and a red corner notice has been issued against one accused in bike boat scam and efforts are on to arrest them. For the first time, extradition proceedings have been started for the accused arrested in London in paddy purchase.
A spokesman of the state government said that in the action against the corrupt in the state, many times faster action has been taken as compared to the previous government.
He said that according to the Home Department, about six and a half hundred investigations of corruption and irregularities have been disposed of in the last four and a half years. In this, for the first time in the history of EOW, 74 cases have been disposed of in the year 2017, 175 in 2018, 239 in 2019, 100 despite the Corona period in 2020 and 52 in 2021 till June.
During this EOW’s investigation has confirmed 352 corrupt government and non-government. In this 175 government officials and employees, 177 accused of private organizations have been found corrupt, in which 45 accused have been arrested. Along with this, a recommendation has also been sent to the government to take departmental action against two officers and employees guilty of corruption, serious administrative, financial irregularities.
Approval of legal proceedings against 371 accused
According to the Home Department, in four and a half years, about seven and a half hundred cases have been investigated by the EOW and legal action has also been given against 371 accused. On the instructions of CM Yogi, to speed up the investigation of EOW, separate police stations have been opened in Lucknow, Kanpur, Meerut and Varanasi and now cases are being registered in these police stations only. About three and a half crore rupees have been approved by the government for the construction of two new buildings and the construction is going to start soon.
The roots of Bijendra Hooda, accused of bike boat scam, are being investigated
An EOW official said that out of the 16 accused against whom lookout notices have been issued, three were stopped at various airports and legal action was initiated against them. EOW in coordination with CBI has issued Red Corner Notice against Bijendra Hooda, accused of bike boat scam and now his roots are being probed.
Extradition proceedings were conducted against Veer Karan Awasthi and Ritika Awasthi, accused in the purchase of paddy worth one crore 76 lakhs by the directors of Bush Foods Pvt Ltd, from the United Kingdom (UK) and the accused were arrested in London. The matter is pending in the UK court to bring the accused.
