CBI questions accused company’s directors, including Vayalar’s son

NEW DELHI: The CBI has examined two directors of Ziqitza Healthcare, Ravi Krishna and Shweta Mangal, in connection with alleged irregularities in running ambulance services in Rajasthan.
Sources said Ravi Krishna, son of former Union minister and Congress leader Vayalar Ravi, and Sweta Mangal, both named as suspects in the Rajasthan Police FIR which has been taken up by the CBI for investigation, were questioned at the agency’s headquarters recently.
The agency is scrutinizing the records of Registrar of Companies to ascertain the changes in the company’s board of directors, sources said.
Congress leader Sachin Pilot, who has also been named as a suspect in the FIR registered after BJP came to power in the state, has said he cut ties with Ziqitza Healthcare before becoming an MP in 2004 when the company changed from “non-profit” to “for profit”.
The FIR alleges that the then directors of the company -- Sachin Pilot, former Union minister P Chidambaram’s son Karthi Chidambaram, Ravi Krishna and Sweta Mangal, still a director of the firm -- manipulated terms of the contract in order to secure it. Others accused in the case are former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot and then state health minister Duru Mirza as well as the director of National Rural Health Mission, sources said.
“The FIR was registered against the then directors of the private firm at Mumbai/Jaipur and others including public servants under Sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 468, 471 and 120-B of IPC on the allegations of irregularities in the award of tender in favour of the said firm by deliberately inserting technical specifications and irregularities in the implementation of the project which included excess bills claimed by said firm and paid to them,” the CBI spokesperson had said.