Tripura: Former Chief Secretary Arrested in Alleged Rs 640 Cr Scam

Guwahati, February 18, 2020:

Tripura's Former chief secretary has been arrested from Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh for allegedly being involved in a Rs 640 crore PWD scam.

A source said that the former official namely, Yash Pal Singh was arrested by a special team of the Tripura Police along with Ghaziabad Police in the scam case.

He was reported to be absconding since the past four months after he was named in the case but based on certain inputs, he was arrested by the police on Monday night. He will be presented at a Ghaziabad court for further proceedings and then he will brought to Assam.

The alleged scam took place in the year 2008-09 when Singh was posted as the principal secretary of the PWD.

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Earlier in October 2019, CPI-M leader and ex-PWD minister Badal Choudury and for PWD chief engineer Sunil Bhowmik along with Singh were named in an FIR by the Vigilance Wing of Tripura.

Choudhury and Bhowmik were both granted bail by the High Court but Singh had been absconding since the filing of the FIR.

All the accused have been book under Sections 409, 418, 420, 421 and 120(B) of the IPC.

Choudhury who is an accused in the case is an eight time MLA and a former MP. He was arrested in October 21 while Bhowmik was arrested on October 14. Choudhury immediately after his arrested was admitted to the hospital after his health deteriorated. He before being arrested was rejected anticipatory bail by the high court.

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Singh a resident of Delhi was arrested after five months of the filing of the case on October 13. He after being brought to Tripura will be questioned thoroughly on his alleged involvement in the scam. As of now, the police are looking into all possibilities of investigation into the scam and further several other people might be arrested in the coming days.

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