17 Srijan scam accused produced in CBI court

PATNA: Seventeen persons, arrested by Bihar police from Bhagalpur, Saharsa, Supaul and Banka in connection with the multi-crore Srijan scam, were produced for the first time in the special CBI court. Now, they are accused in the cases taken over by the CBI, which is probing the illegal transfer of government funds to the tune of over 1300 crore to Srijan Mahila Vikas Sahyog Samiti Limited (SMVSS) in connivance with bank and government officials in several districts, including Bhagalpur.
It was for the first time that the accused were produced before the special court after CBI took over the case from Bihar police on August 25.
CBI’s senior special public prosecutor Akhtar Hussain Khan requested the court to sent back the accused to Bhagalpur from security and investigation point of view.
However, advocate Avanindra Kumar Jha, representing incarcerated Supaul district cooperative officer (DCO) Pankaj Kumar Jha and Bhagalpur district land acquisition office’s nazir Rakesh Kumar Jha, pleaded that all accused should be kept in Patna as they fear for life.
Jha told TOI that the death of nazir Mahesh Mandal while undergoing treatment at Bhagalpur hospital in judicial custody and political nexus in the scam were reasons behind fear among the accused that they might be victimized.
However, the court sent the accused back to Bhagalpur and fixed October 17 as the next date of hearing. Accused Sarita Jha, Sunita Chaudhary and Vinod Mandal were lodged in Bhagalpur central jail while the other 14 were lodged in Special central jail in the same district.
Meanwhile, Bhagalpur SSP Manoj Kumar said altogether 19 FIRs have been lodged till now in connection with the scam and 12 of them have been transferred to CBI. “The other seven FIRs are related to bungling of funds at block level and they will also be transferred to CBI soon,” he said.