NRHM scam accused commits suicide

Sunil Verma, an accused in the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission scam, allegedly committed suicide on Monday at his Vikas Nagar residence in Lucknow 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 Information Report filed in the scam in which former minister Babu Singh Kushwaha was also named. The Central Bureau of Investigation 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 and a Deputy CMO.

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.

(With inputs from PTI)