SIT arrests personal secretaries of three Uttar Pradesh ministers for allegedly taking bribes

Lucknow: The personal secretaries of three Uttar Pradesh ministers, who were arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), have been sent to jail for their alleged involvement in corruption and bribes exchange cases for contracts. [caption id=“attachment_5324541” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] The three accused, Ramnaresh Tripathi, Santosh Awashti and Om Prakash Kashyap, were identified as personal secretaries of 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, respectively. Additional Director General (ADG) of Police Lucknow Rajiv Krishna told ANI: “The personal secretaries of three Uttar Pradesh ministers who were caught in a sting operation taking a bribe have now been arrested and sent to judicial custody. On 1 January, important documents were recovered from the raids conducted at the houses of all three government officials. The investigation is still underway in the case and we are probing other angles as well.” Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh government ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT)-monitored probe after the said staff members were caught on camera allegedly seeking bribes, against favours like transfers, in a sting operation by a media house. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had also directed the SIT to record the statements of all the parties and complete the investigation within a span of 10 days. The SIT team, formed under ADG Rajiv Krishna was assisted by Special Income Tax officer Rakesh Verma. Meanwhile, the Secretariat Administration Department was also directed to review if there are any more such cases.