Invest UP CEO Case Shows That Despite Honest Efforts, Yogi's Anti-Corruption Drive Has Failed To Deliver Expected Results

The suspension of Invest UP chief executive officer (CEO) Abhishek Prakash last month has brought to light the corruption issues that continue to plague the state, even after eight years of the Yogi Adityanath rule.

It is a well-known fact that the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Chief Minister (CM) has adopted a 'zero tolerance' policy against corruption, and frequent suspensions of officers over corruption charges are testimony to that.

However, despite swift action against corrupt officials, the Yogi government has struggled to create a proper deterrent against corruption. To understand why and how this is happening, Swarajya delved deeper into the issue.

First, understand the case of Prakash. He is a 2006-batch Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer, but has faced several corruption allegations in his nearly two-decade-long career as a public servant.

The most prominent among these allegations is related to land acquisition for a defence corridor in Sarojini Nagar Tehsil of Lucknow, when Prakash was the District Magistrate (DM) of the capital city.

It is alleged that when the place was chosen to set up the manufacturing facility for Brahmos missiles, a few officials, in collaboration with land mafias, started acquiring the land parcels from farmers to gain advantage from the skyrocketing prices.

The case came to light in August 2024 when a preliminary investigation report of this scam, submitted to the government, named 17 officers, including Prakash. However, despite this, Prakash continued to serve as the CEO of Invest UP.

It was only after a complaint filed by Vishwajit Datta of SAEL Solar P6 Pvt Ltd alleging that officials at Invest UP sought 5 per cent of the project cost as a bribe to clear the proposal, that Prakash was suspended. Now, the Vigilance Department has also launched a probe against him.

While the UP Police arrested the middleman accused of soliciting a bribe for clearing the solar project, the UP government has sent its report to the Centre's Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on details of allegations against Prakash.

Amid these developments, more allegations against Prakash started surfacing, from his previous tenures in different offices. It is alleged that when Prakash was Bareilly DM from 2012 to 2014, he patronised realtors in land acquisition irregularities.

A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader has written to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to include his complaint as the central investigative agency is probing Prakash in a disproportionate assets case related to Invest UP.

During his tenure as vice chairman of Lucknow Development Authority (LDA), it is alleged that Prakash favoured certain builders, especially in issuing licenses in areas relatively newly settled areas like Aashiyana.

Even for his tenures as DM of Lakhimpur Kheri, Hamirpur, and Aligarh, Prakash is accused of colluding with mining mafias, rigging land purchases and sales and manipulating tenders to favour certain contractors.

Given this, one wonders why an officer with such a background was given a position as senior as the CEO of Invest UP, that too at a time when the state desperately needs investments for economic development and employment opportunities.

The answer might lie in Prakash's previous tenures, where he was seen as a crisis manager by the erstwhile Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav governments. Thus, when Adityanath became the CM, he brought Prakash as Special Secretary in the Home Department in 2017.

Nonetheless, the recent allegations compel one to wonder how much investment the state would have lost if a few companies had turned their backs after facing demands for bribes, and the companies that went ahead after fulfilling the bribery demand might also feel the need to retrieve those costs somehow.

Prakash’s tenure as Invest UP CEO likely resulted in economic losses and undoubtedly damaged the state’s reputation—an outcome that might have been avoided with stricter oversight or more thorough vetting by the Chief Minister’s Office.

Prakash served as the CEO of Invest UP from June 2022 to 20 March 2025. He was also serving as secretary of the Infrastructure and Industrial Department of the state government, from where also, he was suspended.

His appointments as Lucknow District Magistrate in November 2019 and subsequently as CEO of Invest UP were both made under the authority of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Lapses such as these have undoubtedly undermined efforts to establish effective deterrence against corrupt practices.

At the same time, a single case cannot be used to disregard the entire effort which the Yogi government is putting in to tackle the menace of corruption.

With a 'zero tolerance' policy, the Yogi government has suspended 12 IAS officers in eight years. There is a longer list of similar suspensions of Provincial Civil Services (PCS) officers, and even longer for other lower-level officials.

In a case similar to Lucknow's Sarojini Nagar land case, five government officials, including a sub-divisional magistrate, his reader, Lekhpal, Tehsildar and Revenue Inspector, were suspended in Firozabad in July last year and a vigilance probe was launched against them.

Moreover, in August 2024, the UP government mandated that all state employees declare their movable and immovable assets on the 'Manav Sampada' portal, and the salaries of those who failed to do so were withheld to push for compulsory declaration.

To control corruption in construction projects, there are monthly third-party audits for all projects exceeding Rs 50 crore, ensuring on-site checks and minimising corruption in large-scale projects.

The corruption in the Public Distribution System (PDS) has drastically come down with the use of technology and the government recruitment processes in UP are much more transparent now.

Despite these improvements however, common people and businessmen allege that they have to face petty corruption at every stage in their interface with the government.

Explaining the rationale behind this claim, a trader affiliated to the Eastern UP Exporters' Association told Swarajya on the condition of anonymity, "Officials and clerks now say that they are at a greater risk (of getting caught) and hence charge more."

"The more the government goes against corruption, the more it increases. Officials think that the government is paying them salaries just to come to the offices. They demand extra money for doing any other work," he added emphasising the rot.

Another Varanasi-based businessman, dealing with handicrafts and stone works, told Swarajya, "I feel the only solution to this problem is that we keep complaining about the corrupt officials at every level. Our life is getting complicated."

Notably, CM Adityanath had launched an anti-corruption portal, called Jansunwai portal, in 2017, to facilitate easy filing of complaints against corrupt officials. However, this portal lost buzz after Yogi's first term.

When asked why officials don't fear Yogi Adityanath, another businessman said: "This is what they say that we are afraid, and hence, you should pay us more. Earlier, everything was out in the open, so lower bribes would work. But now, they fear suspension and hence, demand more money as a safety cover."

A Lucknow-based businessman told Swarajya that the corruption allegations that are surfacing are only the tip of the iceberg, while almost all officers who take bribes continue to do so throughout their careers without getting caught.

He explained that while corruption has always been an issue in UP, it has increased in the past few years. He claimed that there is no fear among officials because action is taken only based on the complaints and the common people are too reluctant to file a complaint.

"There is more corruption in rural areas where people are less educated. Even businessmen don't file a complaint against corrupt officials due to competitiveness and they prefer to get their work done with bribes," the Lucknow-based businessman added.

While it appears that the general public has reconciled itself to corruption, the current discontent is emerging from the fact that corruption seems to have increased in the past few years.

Did the problem start here?

When Adityanath became CM of the state in 2017, he launched a two-pronged war against crime and corruption. The UP CM's focus was on controlling corrupt politicians and public representatives.

To achieve this, he empowered officials. While the move has reportedly checked corrupt and high-handed practices among politicians, (even BJP leaders), it gave undue powers to the government officials.

"Yogi ji is running a tight administration. So, he has reduced political interference in the working of officers. As a result, officers have become powerful, helping them to take quick action against crime, but at the same time, corruption in financial matters has gone up," a political observer from Bulandshahr told Swarajya.

This is why we see that now the BJP leaders level corruption allegations against officials, a reversal from previous trends where the officials used to complain about corrupt politicians, especially during the Samajwadi Party (SP) rule.

Recently, a BJP member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Loni, Ghaziabad, Nand Kishor Gurjar, alleged that the current UP government is the 'most corrupt government ever' and Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Singh is the 'most corrupt officer.'

Former Minister Sanjeev Balyan also accused UP Police of registering fake cases and the administration of falsely handing ownership of some shops after some traders protested in Shamli.

Even in the suspended IAS officer Prakash's case, a BJP leader, Mahesh Pandey, former District Cooperative Federation Limited, has made allegations about Prakash's tenure as Bareilly DM, and another BJP MLA, Rajeshwar Singh, raised the issue of Lucknow's Sarojini Nagar land case, although without naming Prakash.

With public representatives themselves raising the corruption issue, the Yogi government cannot be seen ignoring it. However, in the past, such allegations of an Apna Dal (Soneylal) MLA, Vinay Verma, against a Superintendent of Police in September 2024, did not receive much response from the UP government and ultimately, he had to call off his strike.

Apart from the issues raised by politicians, common people raise the issue of double standards in UP officials' approach towards criminal and non-criminal cases, where the latter are still considered a 'source of earning'.

The Bulandshahr local gave an example where one of his acquaintances was quickly helped by the administration when a mafia tried to grab his land, without any bribe, but when the same person went to get the land use of his propery changed from agriculture to non-agriculture, he had to allegedly bribe the officials.

This difference in the UP officials' approach, when dealing with crime and when doing regular administrative work, is reportedly not limited to a single department only. Even the power department is alleged to follow this dual approach.

"The power department has become very active against electricity theft. However, the same department asks for a bribe when, instead of stealing, I officially want the load for my house increased," a Ghaziabad local told Swarajya, emphasising the irony.

Yogi’s emphasis on law and order has yielded certain and apparent results, but similar efforts against corruption have either not been sustained or failed to permeate the bureaucracy, large sections of which appear increasingly complacent with corrupt practices.

To be sure, much of the blame for this also lies with the dominant sentiment around corruption in Uttar Pradesh’s society, which pushed people to reconcile to, and normalise corruption. On the other hand, expecting an entire state to weed out corruption of decades in seven-eight years is also not the most prudent belief to work with.

Even so, it was expected that Yogi Adityanath would bring the same iron-fist approach to corruption that he did to organised crime. It's not that the people of Uttar Pradesh are facing corruption for the first time. It's that they expected Yogi Adityanath to be tougher on it.