Zee Media Bureau/Ritesh K Srivastava
Jaipur: Former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, senior Congress leader Sachin Pilot and eight others have been named in an FIR filed in connection with an alleged ambulance scam under the National Rural Health Mission, reports said on Wednesday.
Gehlot, Pilot and others named in the case have been accused of embezzling funds to the tune of Rs 2.56 crores in connection with a tender issued by the erstwhile Congress government for operating 108 ambulances across three states.
The case is now being investigated by the Crime Branch - Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) of the state police.
Besides Gehlot and Pilot, others who have been named in the FIR are Ravi Krishna and Karthi Chidmabaram, son of senior Congress leaders and former union ministers Vayalar Ravi and P Chidambaram, respectively.
In 2013, Jigitsa Healthcare, a company run by Ravi Krishna, received a tender to operate 108 ambulances across Rajasthan, Bihar and Punjab.
However, the state`s health department, in its audit report, later alleged huge financial irregularities in the way the ambulances were operated, with losses amounting to Rs. 14 crore.
The BJP has accused the Congress of giving the tender to Jigitsa Healthcare because of the organisation`s political connections after it was revealed that Pilot and Chidambaram had also served as its directors.
Acting on the FIR filed by the former Jaipur mayor Pankaj Joshi, who alleged that the tender to operate 108 ambulances was issued in the name of Jigitsa Healthcare in the gross violation of rules and guidelines on April 6, 2010, the Ashok Nagar police filed a case against Pilot, Gehlot, Chidambaram and Krishna, among others.
The case was later transferred to the CB-CID.
