Saryu Roy feels vindicated after ED raids in Jharkhand

Jamshedpur, April 4:  Jamshedpur West JD-U MLA Saryu Roy said on Friday that Enforcement Directorate (ED) has raided about one and a half dozen places in Jharkhand in connection with the Ayushman Bharat scam.

“This is not a sudden and shocking incident. A person like him was waiting for this for a long time. Today when ED raided, he felt satisfied. Of course the raid was done in the name of Ayushman but ED should get to the bottom of it because if ED does not reach what has happened in the health department for five years, then it will not become a big issue,” said Rai.

However, he also said that any comment on ED raid is inappropriate. He expressed hope that ED will expose the syndicate of scamsters in the health department.

Saryu Rai said that the issues he was raising for the last five years have been confirmed by the ED raid.

In a statement issued here, Rai said that in reality, a syndicate of scamsters has been formed in the health department in the last five years which includes the minister, his secretary, some officers of the health department, some businessmen of Jamshedpur and some doctors and hospitals.

Saryu Rai said that the most shocking thing in this raid is the raid at the residence of Om Prakash Singh alias Guddu, who was the personal secretary of former health minister Banna Gupta.

“There was a notion in the health department that whatever Om Prakash Singh says, Banna Gupta does the same. Om Prakash Singh’s orders were carried out unofficially in the health department. People with this mindset in the health department had formed a gang,” he alleged.

Saryu Rai further said that he raised the matter in the assembly several times regarding the irregularities in the health department. No action was taken. An inquiry committee was formed, but no inquiry was conducted. No report was tabled.

“Two months ago, I asked for some information under the Right to Information, but did not get it. It has not been received till date. This proves that those people want to hide things,” Rai claimed.

Rai said that since he raised his voice against this, four-five cases were registered against him. These cases were filed by the Health Department. Om Prakash Singh is a witness in two-three of those cases.

“These people have been pressurizing the Ranchi Police to arrest me. The DSP of Hatia who was working properly was replaced and these people brought a “famous” DSP. They turned a blind eye and made the case against me true,” said Rai.

“Today I am on bail in that case. In one case, the court has banned any coercive action against me. In such a situation, people in the Health Department had assumed that no one would oppose whatever they do. Action will be taken against those who oppose,” he claimed.

Saryu Rai said that the people involved in the nexus conspired in a planned manner to embezzle the money that the Government of India was giving for the help of patients.

ED also conducted raids in Dhanbad. This was also discussed many times in the assembly. We felt that ED or CBI were not taking it seriously but these agencies had started working on it.