Personal secretaries of three UP ministers, who were earlier arrested by Special Investigation Team (SIT) for alleged corruption and accepting bribe in exchange of contracts, were sent to jail on Sunday.
The three accused were earlier suspended by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Yogi had further ordered a probe against the three secretaries.
“The accused Ram Naresh Tripathi, Om Prakash Kashyap and Santosh Awasthi were booked under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. They were sent to jail after the charges against them were found to be true in our investigation,” Hindustan Times quoted ADG Lucknow Zone Rajeev Krishna, who was heading the SIT.
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The three accused were serving as personal secretaries for Minister of State for Mining, Excise and Prohibition Archana Pandey, Minister of State for Backward Class Welfare Om Prakash Rajbhar and Minister of State for Basic, Secondary and Higher Education Sandeep Singh.
The accused staff were caught on camera accepting bribe in a sting operation carried out by a Hindi news channel, ABP. Following the sting operation, the secretaries– Ram Naresh Tripathi, Om Prakash Kashyap and Santosh Awasthi– were booked under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act in Hazratganj police station.
Moreover, the government has strictly directed the SIT to investigate any such cases in the ministry.
