Lucknow, May 14: The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court today directed Uttar Pradesh government to file counter affidavit within two weeks on a Public Intrest Litigation seeking direction for CBI probe into alleged bungling and misappropriation of several crores of rupees by senior bureaucrats including several IAS officers. The order was passed by a division bench comprising Chief Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Justice N K Mehrotra. The petition said Director Vigilance had probed the corruption charges and asked department secretary to initiate further proceedings against 24 officials including several IAS officers. It alleged that the secretary, instead of taking action agaisnt the officials, closed the inquiry with the consent of the Chief Minister. The petition further alleged that 41 similar inquiries of misappropriation of public money were pending before the secretary, vigilance and were likely to meet the same fate.

Bureau Report