Ex-UP MLA booked for assets disproportionate to income
Bahraich: Mukesh Kumar Srivastava, a former MLA from Payagpur seat in Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich district, has been booked by the state vigilance wing for owning assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
Senior police officials said Srivastava was the MLA from Payagpur between 2012 and 2017. Initially with the Congress, he defected to the Samajwadi Party in 2016 when he and his wife Pooja Srivastava were facing a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe for their alleged involvement in the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam.
They added that both husband and wife were declared proclaimed absconders in the NRHM case in 2014.
The former MLA was later arrested and remained lodged in Dasna jail in Ghaziabad for a few months.
Sharing further details, a senior vigilance official confirmed that the FIR was registered after the department conducted an open inquiry against him in 2021. He said the department submitted its findings to the state government on October 12 this year and had sought permission to register an FIR against him in the matter.
The official said Srivastava, who had declared an income of Rs 1.12 crore, had spent nearly Rs 57 lakh (Rs 1.79 crore) more than his legitimate earnings. “Srivastava could not give a satisfactory answer when asked about the extra expenditure,” the official added.
Following this, an FIR was registered against him under different sections of Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act at its Lucknow sector police station.