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Yogi promoted Gorakhpur DM Rajeev Rautella who ‘stopped media’ in by-pollsBy HTS

LUCKNOW: Rajiv Rautela, the District Magistrate of Gorakhpur, who courted controversy on Wednesday for barring the media from accessing details at the Lok Sabha bypoll counting centre, has been shifted and prompted as Divisional Commissioner of Devipatan.

Rautela banned media-persons from entering the counting area despite having valid election commission passes in Gorakhpur.

This is not the first time the Yogi’s controversial blue-eyed boy has hit the headlines.

The 2002 batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre appears to share mutually beneficial relationship with Adityanath was handpicked by the Adityanath and appointed as DM of his home district, Gorakhpur.

He is known to play a key role in facilitating the withdrawal of a criminal case against the chief minister.

Even though he is at the heart of a controversy in August last year in the children’s deaths case at BRD Medical College Hospital concerning the oxygen crisis, he was never held accountable.

The government had framed charges against the former principal of the BRD college and his wife Dr Poornima Shukla and Dr Kafeel Khan, the nodal officer at the BRD hospital who was hailed as a ‘hero’ for using his personal funds to help procure oxygen cylinders to manage the crisis.

But Rautela, known to have close relations with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was never questioned. Instead, the Yogi government directed Rautela to conduct a probe into the incident.

On the basis of Rautela’s findings, the government directed criminal action against Dr Rajeev Mishra, the former principal of the college and his wife Dr Poornima Shukla and Dr Kafeel Khan.

In December 15, 2017, the Allahabad High Court had ordered Rautela’s suspension over an illegal mining on the Kosi river.

The Uttar Pradesh government has transferred 37 IAS officials, including 16 District Magistrates, an official said on Saturday.

The bureaucratic rejig was effected late on Friday.

The Samajwadi Party has wrested Gorakhpur, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s home constituency, from the BJP after several decades.