In Uttar Pradesh, a Ghaziabad based special CBI court has sent former Minister in Mayawati government, Babu Singh Kushwaha and BSP MLA, Ram Pratap Jaiswal to the CBI custody till March 13.

They were produced before the court after their arrest by the probe agency in connection with the multi-crore rupee National Rural Health Mission, NRHM scam in the state.

AIR Lucknow Correspondent reports that Kushwaha and Jaiswal are the first politicians to be arrested in the NRHM scam. Both of them were called by the CBI at its headquarters in New Delhi for detailed questioning.

They were arrested after four hours of interrogation. Kushwaha is accused in the case relating to upgradation of 134 district hospitals for an amount of more than 13 crore rupees by the Construction and Design Service of Jal Nigam.

The CBI has so far registered 12 cases involving alleged irregularities to the tune of 370 crore in the utilisation of NRHM fund.

It has arrested 10 persons, including retired state Director General of Family Welfare, Dr. S P Ram, General Manager of Jal Nigam Construction and Design Services, P K Jain and retired MD of state Public Sector Unit Shreetron India Ltd, G K Batra.