Chief Medical Officer's abduction: After minister's resignation, top officials transferred

Lucknow: A day after a minister was forced to resign on allegations of intimidating and kidnapping the chief medical officer (CMO) in Uttar Pradesh's Gonda, the state government on Saturday shifted out the district magistrate, district police chief, chief development officer and the CMO.

The transfers, which were with immediate effect, come after the first three officials united against the Minister of State for Revenue and Rehabilitation Vinod Singh after the CMO had alleged that he had been abducted by the minister.

The minister, forced to resign on Friday after media outrage, had demanded that a probe be ordered against the district officials.

District Magistrate Abhay has been put on the waiting list and has been replaced by Roshan Jacob, the new SSP is Navneet Rana and the new CDO will be Munni Lal Pandey. The charge of CMO has been given to the senior most deputy CMO, said a government official.

The probe into the incident would be conducted by Sanjeev Mittal, the divisional commissioner of Lucknow and he is expected to submit a report to the government within a week.

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Gonda CMO SP Singh had on Thursday alleged that a senior leader of the ruling Samajwadi Party and a minister had intimidated him into adjusting some of his candidates in a selection process to recruit contractual doctors under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). He had also alleged that the minister later abducted him.

The SSP and DM, after receiving the information, had sent the CMO into hiding under full police protection. The minister quit Friday and alleged that he was being framed by officials.

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