ED books former MP health director on laundering charges

Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case against former Madhya Pradesh Health Director Dr Yogiraj Sharma and a few others in the Rs 7 crore drug kit purchase scam in the state.
This is the second high-profile corruption case in the state after the Professional Examination Board (PEB) scam, in which the central probe agency has registered a criminal case.
ED's zonal office in Indore has booked Sharma and nine others under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and will soon record their statements, officials said.
The scam took place in 2006 when Sharma was the health director.

The central agency took cognisance of the case after going through the Lokayukta police's FIR and the charge sheet which was filed by the latter against the accused earlier this year.
The irregularity pertains to the purchase of drug kits for Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) scheme workers under the National Rural Health Mission.

Besides Sharma, Ashok Nanda, head of IPS School in Indore, employees of one of Nanda's firms, Satyendra Sahoo and Yogesh Pateria, and employees of Karnataka Anti-Biotic Ltd, MK Nagendra and Deepak Naigaonkar, are also named in the Lokayukta charge sheet on which the separate ED probe is now based.

A complaint was filed with Lokayukta police in this regard in 2009 and it subsequently opened a probe into the matter.
Sharma's residence was also searched by the Income Tax department after which the state government issued orders for his compulsory retirement from service.