Former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav at the inauguration of the Gomti River Front in Lucknow. (Archive)
An FIR was lodged on Monday against eight current and former officials of the irrigation department over alleged irregularities in the Rs 1,500 crore Gomti River Front project of the previous Samajwadi Party regime.
Gomti Nagar SHO Sujeet Kumar Dubey said it has been registered on the basis of a 74-page inquiry report submitted by a government probe panel that formed by the Yogi Adityanath government and headed by retired High Court judge Alok Kumar Singh.
The FIR has been registered on the complaint of the executive engineer of Sharda Canal, Lucknow Circle, under IPC sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and the Prevention of Corruption Act, the SHO added.
Then chief engineers Gulesh Chandra, SN Sharma, Kazim Ali and Shivmangal Yadav, superintendent engineer Akhil Raman as well as officials Kamleshwar Singh, Roop Singh Yadav and Surendra Yadav.
Additional charges may be included to the FIR after studying its contents, said the SHO. The state government has also indicated that it may recommend a CBI inquiry into the project.
Worth Rs 1,513 crore, the project could not be completed despite expenditure of most of the funds allocated to it, the Adityanath administration has claimed.
On April 1, the chief minister had ordered an inquiry by a retired High Court judge in the Gomti River Front Project, said a PTI report. He had instructed chief secretary Rahul Bhatnagar to constitute the committee and also directed for submission of the report within 45 days.
The chief minister had also directed the urban development minister and the irrigation minister Dharmpal Singh to monitor the development work at Gomti River Front.
