NRHM scam key accused commits suicide

Lucknow: Sunil Verma, an accused in the multi-crore NRHM scam, allegedly committed suicide today at his Vikas Nagar residence here by shooting himself with his licenced revolver, police said.

Verma shot himself around 8.30 AM and was rushed to hospital where he died, they said.
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 January 4 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 with the murder of two Chief Medical Officers (CMO) and a Deputy CMO, who was found dead inside the jail hospital here.

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.