AGARTALA, April 20 (TIWN): As expected, with a twist to the investigation of National Health Mission (NHM) scam at Unakoti District, Police has handed over the case to the CID team for further investigation. According to the highly placed source from police it revealed that the CID would investigate the scam case further after it gets an approval.On a telephonic conversation with TIWN on Monday a highly placed source from the police informed, “The case has become quite complicated for the police to investigate it, as a result the case was handed over with the CID.” The source also added, “Though it was handed over with the CID department but the approval has not yet come from the higher authority.”Besides, most surprisingly the source added, “Some political pressures had led the case to turn complicated putting barrier in police investigation.” Adding to that the source on Monday talking to TIWN said, “It is not possible for the police to focus solely on the NHM scam investigation, because many cases remained pending and are getting delayed due to it”. Therefore police has decided to hand over the case with the CID department, though no approval has come yet, said source.

Asked about the recent status of the police investigation, the source said, “As of now lost of documents were seized from the NHM department at Unakoti district.” Adding to that he further said, “Police were supposed to seize some important bills and vouchers of the department on April 13, but due to the incident of Pecharthal violence has acted barrier on it.”

Following the order of the High Court Unakoti NHM Mission Director Dr. Sandeep Mahatme had lodged an FIR with the police against 7 Chief Medical Officer (CMO)s and other MOICs of several PHCs.

However but even after the passage of at least 12 days no accused officials has been arrested yet today rather has brought an interesting twist to the NHM multi crore scam. Therefore it would be wise enough to comment here that the accused officials against whom the FIR was lodged would of course take an advantage of the twist to the story to find an easy way to escape from the allegation.

Besides, as it was expected the “political pressures” on the investigation of NHM scam case has also come under the limelight on Monday after our highly placed source from police had cleared it over telephonic conversation.

However, though it is a time now to witness the development of the case with the CID investigating it after the approval comes.

What makes the growth story much interesting is that the uninterrupted 22-year stint in power have taken a toll on the financial transparency of the Left Front administration in Tripura. Development, peace and chief minister Manik Sarkar’s clean image are the factors that are likely or unlikely to work in favour of the Left Front yet again. As the poll draw near yet again, the Congress party’ clamor for change has only got louder.   

The state government had received complaints of misappropriation of fund to the tune of Rs 27 crore from Congress legislator and incumbent Tripura Pradesh Congress president Birajit Sinha during the year 2014, following which the Tripura government has directed State Mission Director of the National Health Mission (NHM) to verify records in view of the alleged embezzlement of funds in the Unakoti district of north Tripura.

An internal audit has revealed misappropriation of NHM funds to the tune of Rs 20 crore in the district over a period of seven years till 2013.