This Article is From Nov 20, 2011

BSP leader claims threat from Mayawati's men, seeks protection

BSP leader claims threat from Mayawati's men, seeks protection
Lucknow: Former Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Babu Singh Kushwaha, once considered close to Chief Minister Mayawati, on Saturday accused a state minister and two bureaucrats of conspiring to kill him.

In a letter shot off by him to the Chief Minister, Kushwaha has expressed threat to his life from his former cabinet colleague Naseemuddin Siddiqui, as well as the cabinet secretary and the state home secretary.

"The extent of animosity these three people bear against the applicant is so much that the applicant also apprehends that the three can conspire against him and he also apprehends threat to his life from them," says the letter, copies of which have also been marked to the Prime Minister, the state Governor, the Chief Justice of India, the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Union Home Secretary.

"Ever since the applicant's resignation from the cabinet in April 2011, these powerful people in the government have teamed up against the applicant to settle their personal scores and the applicant apprehends that these three people could misuse their powerful posts and the official machinery to implicate the applicant, his relatives and supporters in false and fictitious cases," the letter adds.

Interestingly, Kushwaha makes it a point to acknowledge how he was handpicked as an ordinary party worker to be inducted into the state cabinet by Mayawati and entrusted with multiple portfolios, including family welfare.

It was a multi-crore scam in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), under the family welfare department, that prompted Kushwaha to resign in April. The scam also led to the murders of two chief medical officers.

His letter follows an Allahabad High Court order issued earlier this week for a CBI probe into the scam.

However, state Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) spokesman Swami Prasad Maurya blamed Kushwaha for cooking up a false story to evoke sympathy as he appeared to be completely cornered.

"Besides the NRHM case, Kushwaha was also facing a probe by the Lokayukta who was looking into the alleged disproportionate assets amassed by him as a minister," Maurya said.
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