Lucknow official accused in NRHM scam kills himself

Sunil Verma, an accused in the multi-crore NRHM scam, allegedly committed suicide on Monday morning at his Vikas Nagar residence in Lucknow by shooting himself with his licenced revolver.

Verma shot himself at around 8.30 am and was rushed to the hospital. The hospital authorities said he was ‘brought dead’.

Verma was named in the first FIR filed in the scam in which former minister Babu Singh Kushwaha was also named.

The CBI had carried out searches at his residence on 4 January after which he had been under depression, family sources said. Verma was the project engineer with the construction and design service of the UP Jal Nigam.

This is the fourth mysterious death related to the scam. Earlier two Chief Medical Officers (CMO) and a Deputy CMO were murdered.

The Allahabad High Court directed the CBI to inquire into the misuse of NRHM funds following these murders. CBI, probing the scam, has been carrying out searches at the houses of various officials, including bureaucrats and businessmen associated with the family welfare department.

The CAG has in a report strongly indicted the state’s health and family welfare department functionaries, middlemen and contractors for allegedly guzzling Rs 5,700 crore of the Rs 8,657 crore released between 2005 and 2011 under NRHM.

Verma worked as a Project Manager for the National Health Rural Mission Scheme.

PTI