Yogi responds over BJP office bearer

The controversy over alleged demand of bribe by SP Goel, principal secretary to chief minister, took a dramatic turn when on complaint of the Bharatiya Janta Party office bearer, Lucknow police suddenly swung into action. They immediately get a case registered against the whistleblower and had picked up from his house and had detained him since Friday morning in the name of recording his statement under Section 161 of Cr PC. 

Interestingly, chief minister Yogi Adityanath, also responded to the allegations by asking the chief secretary Rajeev Kumar, to probe the facts ands submit a report for further necessary action. In the meantime, the kin of the whistleblower also staged a dharna near chief minister’s residence in Kalidas Marg, demanding justice and release of the complainant. 

``We registered a case against Abhishek Gupta, on the complaint handed over to them by BJP headquarters in-charge Bharat Dikshit, accusing him of misusing the name of party senior leaders and office  bearers to seek benefits”, disclosed SSP Lucknow Deepak Kumar, while confirming of detention of Gupta to record his statement under Section 161 of Cr PC. Dikshit, in his letter to the police, said that he has been informed by special secretary in the CM secretariat Shubhrant Shukla about the misdeed of Gupta and sought strict action against the accused. Kumar said that the FIR was registered under sections 501 and 420 of the IPC at the Hazratganj police station in Lucknow. 

The controversy involving chief minister’s secretariat galore on Thursday when in a letter, written to Adityanath by governor Ram Naik, was leaked to the media. Naik, asked to conduct a probe on allegation of one Abhisekh Gupta, that PS to Chief Minister, had demanded Rs 25 lakh from him to clear his file regarding sanctioning of gram samaj land to him to erect a petrol pump in Hardoi.

Highly placed sources in the administration blame the entire episode as a long-drawn cadre war among the IAS officers themselves and called it the handiwork of anti-Goel lobby.  Undoubtedly, Governor’s letter for inquiry and action against Principal Secretary Goel, will bring the CMO on opposition’s focus. However, Raj Bhawan sources said it was routine affair as the Governor keeps on receiving public complaints and forwarding them to authorities concerned for necessary action.  

In his complaint mailed to the Governor, Gupta, a Lucknow resident, who was allotted a petrol pump by a private company in Raison village in Sandila block in Hardoi district, said he was facing problem in setting up the pump as the distance between the petrol pump and the road passing along it was not enough to fulfill the norms of the company. Gupta alleged that when he met Principal Secretary Goel urging him to allot him more land so that he could start the petrol pump, he demanded Rs 25 lakh. 

Consequently, taking a strong note of the issue, Governor Ram Naik forwarded the complaint to the CM seeking action in this regard. The complaint, however, was forwarded to the CM on April 30 but the letter somehow leaked on Thursday, nearly after 40 days, reportedly by a group of officers who are eying the plum post in CMO.