The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday carried out searches at multiple locations across four states in connection with its money laundering probe into the Rs 1,500-crore Gomti riverfront project case. The project had been launched by the Akhilesh Yadav government and was one of the first cases the Yogi Adityanath government had recommended for a CBI probe.
Sources said searches were conducted on the premises of various accused and their associates in Lucknow, Noida, Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan. Sources said ED officials have seized several documents related to the case.
The agency had filed a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act last March. The ED case was filed after taking cognizance of a November 2017 CBI FIR. The CBI had on November 30, 2017, registered a case of corruption, cheating, criminal conspiracy against 8 project engineers.
The state government had constituted an inquiry into the beautification of the Gomti riverfront by the previous SP government, touted then as Akhilesh’s dream project. With the Opposition alleging corruption, it had emerged as a key issue during the 2017 Assembly polls.
After coming to power, Adityanath was reportedly briefed by his officials that of the total allocation of Rs 1,513 crore, 95 per cent of the budget had been spent, but less than 60 per cent of work had been completed.
The Adityanath government referred to CBI, which took over investigation on November 30.
It asked for a probe into irregularities committed with a “criminal intent” in implementation of the Gomti River Channelization Project and the Gomti River Front Development by the irrigation department under the previous government. The CBI had filed an FIR against then chief engineers Gulesh Chandra, S N Sharma, Qazim Ali, then superintendent engineers Mangal Yadav, Akhil Raman, Kamaleshwar Singh, Roop Singh Yadav and executive engineer Surendra Yadav.
Gulesh Chandra, Shiv Mangal Yadav, Akhil Raman and Roop Singh Yadav have now retired, officials said. A state government-constituted committee, under retired Allahabad High Court judge Alok Kumar Singh, had indicated prima facie, irregularities in the project in its report dated May 16, 2017. The state police had registered the case on June 19 on the basis of the report. The matter was subsequently referred to CBI, which took over the investigation.
