Rautela is known to be a close associate of Uttar Pradesh CM and former five-term Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath, who hand-picked him to head the administrative set-up of his home district.
New Delhi: As the Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate took the lead over the BJP’s in Gorakhpur, district magistrate (DM) Rajeev Rautela, also the returning officer for the Lok Sabha bypoll, walked in and ordered the media out of the counting centre.
Rautela is known to be a close associate of Uttar Pradesh CM and former five-term Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath, who hand-picked him to head the administrative set-up of his home district. That’s why few were surprised by Rautela’s bid to keep the media out of the counting centre as the BJP fell behind in its bastion.
The opposition has lodged an official complaint against Rautela with the Election Commission, and the proceedings of the UP Vidhan Sabha were disrupted Tuesday as they raised questions over his decision. However, the controversy is not the first for Rautela, who hit headlines last year after a lack of oxygen led to the deaths of 70 children at a state-run Gorakhpur hospital.
While the report Rautela submitted claimed supplier Pushpa Sales Private Limited had cut off the oxygen supply, the firm said it could produce evidence that they had not. The DM also indicted the head of the hospital’s anaesthesia department, Satish Kumar, and its chief pharmacist, Gajanan Jaiswal, for their negligence in maintaining proper log and stock books.
On December 15, 2017, the Allahabad high court ordered Rautela’s suspension along with that of another senior officer, Rakesh Kumar Singh, in a case relating to illegal mining on the Kosi river. Mining is illegal in Uttar Pradesh and both officers were accused of abetting it during their terms as district magistrates.
On December 23, three labourers lost their lives and two were injured during an illegal mining operation at the river. Even though the court sought a report from the chief secretary on the matter by January 2018, no action has been taken against the officers so far.
Rautela also played a key role in facilitating the withdrawal of a criminal case against Adityanath and others. On December 20, the state government wrote to Rautela to withdraw the case filed against Adityanath and 12 others at Gorakhpur’s Pipiganj police station on May 27, 1995. The case charged Adityanath and others with inciting and leading wide-spread violence against Muslims in Gorakhpur and neighbouring areas. He was at that point the Gorakhpur MP and spent 10 days in jail before being released on bail.
An affidavit submitted in the Allahabad high court by the state in May 2017 said the government would not prosecute the CM. On January 8, 2018, Uttar Pradesh governor Ram Naik signed a bill for the withdrawal of 20,000 “politically motivated” cases filed over protest demonstrations.
His move should be probed.