Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui, TNN | Mar 30, 2013, 01.23 AM IST

LUCKNOW: Senior IAS officer Pradeep Shukla faces arrest as a CBI court in Ghaziabad on Thursday dismissed his appeal against a non-bailable arrest warrant issued against him in connection with his alleged role in the Rs 5,700-crore National Rural Health Mission (NHRM) scam.

The politically influential bureaucrat, who would have to appear before the court on April 5, had moved an application before the court through his counsel seeking to quash the warrant issued on March 22 on medical grounds.

Special CBI additional district judge Shyam Lal had issued the warrant after Shukla failed to appear before the court till March 19. The Allahabad high court had set the deadline for him to appear before the CBI court a month earlier.

The high court directives came after it dismissed Shukla’s petition challenging a chargesheet filed against him before the special CBI court in Ghaziabad, saying it was filed on the basis of the statements of his co-accused. He had pleaded for the quashing of the chargesheet as statements of the co-accused were not admissible under the Evidence Act.

The CBI opposed the petition, insisting the statements of the co-accused could not be ignored as they were involved as agents. It sought the petition’s rejection, saying the statements of the agents “cannot be overlooked”, as they are admissible evidence.

The agency had arrested Shukla in May 2012 for his alleged role in the scam after the Allahabad high court admonished the agency “for not touching the big guns” named in the scam.

He was granted bail three months later after the CBI failed to submit a chargesheet against him.

A 1981 batch officer, Shukla was principal secretary, health and family welfare, and NRHM director between 2009 and 2011 when the scam took place. He is accused of bungling upgradation of 89 district hospitals, causing a loss of over Rs 18 crore to the exchequer.

Shukla was a powerful bureaucrat during previous CM Mayawati’s government.

Senior minister in CM Akhilesh Yadav‘s cabinet Shiv Pal Yadav had met Shukla in Jail in July 2012. Shukla’s wife, also an IAS officer, comes from a politically influential family.

The scam came to light after the murder of two chief medical officers in Lucknow.

The CBI had arrested former family welfare minister Babu Singh Kushwaha in the same case. He had accused Shukla of signing forged documents to make fictitious payments.