New Delhi, October 29
Former Uttarakhand chief minister and currently the national vice president of BJP Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank is in deep trouble, with the state government registering an FIR against him.

Sources in the government said the FIR has charged Nishank, a sitting minister in CM BC Khanduri’s Cabinet Madan Kaushik and 11 other senior officials of the state with corruption, bungling and misuse of government funds for the Maha Kumbh Mela, in January-March, 2010.

Kaushik, holding urban development charge under Nishank, has been relegated to what could be perceived as a low-key portfolio.

An FIR to this effect has been registered at the Mela police station at Haridwar against 13 people including the former Chief Minister, minister Kaushik and others, including the then DM and Chief Mela officer of Haridwar Anand Vardhan as also the chief medical officer, the chief engineer and a host of other PWD officials under sections 120, 467, 468 and 671 of the IPC, charging them with forgery, cheating, bungling and conspiring to defraud public funds. The government had backed up the FIR with the documents running into hundreds of pages. This cheating and bungling was brought to notice of the public in the CAG report. It had charged Nishank government with making an “unauthorised expenditure of Rs 43 crore”.