LUCKNOW: National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (NCSC) chairman P L Punia, who is also the Congress MP from Barabanki, from where Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi started the second leg of his campaign on Tuesday, may soon be in trouble to the extent of facing severe police action in a corruption case.
A drastic action against Punia by the Mayawati Government may deflate Rahul Gandhi’s anti-corruption campaign in UP because in most of the places he has seen with Punia sitting next to him and raising bogey of corruption against Chief Minister Mayawati.
An inquiry ordered against him long ago has been completed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the UP police and may be submitted to the government for final decision. The inquiry report has found Punia, a retired IAS officer, guilty of fake loaning and violated rules and regulations to favour them.
At that time Punia was the managing director of PICUP. The UP Government is readying to chargesheet Punia.
The top authorities of the BSP Government are finalising the strategy on how to go ahead against Punia, who is not only a Congress MP but also comes from the Scheduled Castes.
The bureaucrat-turned politician, who had been elected from Barabanki (reserved) seat on the Congress ticket in the 2009 parliamentary elections, was once very close to the BSP leadership.
In 1995, when Mayawati became Chief Minister for the first time she chose Punia as her principal secretary.
The relationship between Mayawati and Punia got strained when the Supreme Court ordered a CBI inquiry into the Taj Heritage corridor case in 2002. The CBI had also raided the residence of Punia apart from other officials and BSP leaders, including Mayawati.