SIT interrogates 3 personal secretaries of ministers

LUCKNOW:Three personal secretaries of UP ministers, who were arrested over corruption charges on Saturday, were questioned for multiple hours on Tuesday by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by ADG, Lucknow Zone, Rajeev Krishna.

The three secretaries were questioned after taking their day-long custody on Tuesday from the competent court to question over different aspects related to the bribery allegations.

Krishna confirmed that the accused Ram Naresh Tripathi, Om Prakash Kashyap and Santosh Awasthi were questioned over their interactions shown in a sting operation conducted by a Hindi television news channel.

He said three separate questionnaires were prepared after watching the video footage prepared by the news channel and allegations mentioned in the news item.

He added that the three accused were cross-questioned over multiple issues.

Tripathi was personal secretary of mining minister Archana Pandey while Kashyap was personal secretary of minister of backward class welfare Om Prakash Rajbhar.

Awasthi was personal secretary of minister of basic, secondary and higher education, Sandeep Singh.

The three secretaries were caught on camera, purportedly ready to accept bribe in return of getting work done from the ministers.

Three separate FIRs were lodged and the secretaries were booked under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act after the state government took a note of the sting operation and ordered to form an SIT to probe the allegations levelled on December 28, 2018.

The CM had also ordered strict action in the case.