Citing "relentless persecution", whistleblower bureaucrat Sanjiv Chaturvedi has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to disclose the details of the 2014 conversation he had with then Union health minister Harsh Vardhan.
Though the letter was written in February, the contents of the letter have been accessed only recently.
Chaturvedi has sought action against those responsible for harassing him as well as disclosure of information related to the status of investigation of corruption cases against serving central ministers, in accordance with a recent order of the Central Information Commission.
In his letter, Chaturvedi said he was subjected to "relentless persecution" and dragged into "endless litigations" in more than a dozen court cases across four high courts, tribunals and Supreme Court after the phone conversation between Modi and Vardhan on 23 August 2014.
A letter dated 23 August 2014, issued by then Union Health secretary Lov Verma to the Prime Minister's Office said, "The Hon'ble Prime Minister of India had a telephonic discussion with the Hon'ble Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare regarding relieving of charge of CVO, AIIMS, New Delhi from Shri Sanjiv Chaturvedi, Deputy Secretary, AIIMS, New Delhi." “A detailed note in this regard is submitted for perusal of Hon'ble Prime Minister of India," the letter said.
In his letter to the prime minister, Chaturvedi has cited a May 2014 file noting of then health secretary mentioning his “exemplary performance” as CVO. He has also cited the Parliamentary Committee Report of August 2015, which “strongly deprecated the non-serious approach of the Ministry towards tackling such a large number of cases of corruption at AIIMS”.
Chaturvedi, who earlier worked with the Haryana government, faced similar harassment earlier.
This order was upheld by the Supreme Court, which imposed a further fine of Rs 25,000.
Chaturvedi is a 2002 batch officer of India Forest Service and exposed a series of corruption cases during his tenure as AIIMS CVO between 2012 and 2016.
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