Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on Monday recommended a CBI probe into the case of alleged financial irregularities in operating the state-run ambulance scheme in which her predecessor Ashok Gehlot and former union minister Sachin Pilot among others were named as accused.
"The Chief Minister gave her recommendation today and now the case will be referred to CBI for investigation," an official of the state Home department said.
The official said a formal communication seeking the CBI probe in operating the '108' ambulance service will be sent to the Centre on Tuesday.
The move by the BJP government came days after the Rajasthan DGP recommended referring to the CBI against Gehlot, Pilot and several others for alleged financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 2.56 crore in operating the ambulance service during the previous Congress regime.
"The recommendation to refer the case to CBI was made to the state government a few days back because the case involves certain things like scheme and fund pertaining to the Centre and it is appropriate that the case is handled by the Central agency," DGP Omendra Bharadwaj said on Saturday.
Health Minister Rajendra Rathore last week said the DGP made the recommendation to the Chief Minister who will take the decision on the matter.
Gehlot, a senior Congress leader, has claimed that the government was ‘pressurizing' the officers to do such things which were aimed at diverting the attention of the people.
"The government has failed to perform and to divert the people's attention, the state government is making such attempts. When the FIR was lodged in June, it came to my knowledge that the officers were being pressurized to act in this manner," Gehlot had told reporters.
Pilot, also a Congress leader, had earlier accused the Raje government of indulging in ‘politics of vendetta', alleging it is working with malicious intentions and that the case was lodged ‘to malign the image of Congress leadership'.
The police filed the FIR in June this year on the basis of a probe into a complaint by former Jaipur Municipal Corporation Mayor Pankaj Joshi at Ashok Nagar police station here which was lodged on July 31 last year.
CID-CB was investigating the case in which Pankaj Joshi has named, besides Gehlot and Pilot, former state health minister AA Khan, Karti Chidambaram, son of a former union minister and Ravi Krishna, son of former union minister Vayalar Ravi, Sweta Mangal, then CEO of Ziquitza Healthcare, Shaffi Mather, former Economic Advisor to Kerala CM Oommen Chandy and the NRHM Director.
Joshi accused them of being involved in the alleged monetary irregularities in the launching of the ambulance service.
