Srijan scam accused dies at Patna hospital

PATNA: One of the main accused in Bihar's multi-crore Srijan scam died during treatment at Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) late Saturday night. The accused, Arun Kumar, was lodged in Beur Central Jail for many years. He was admitted to the hospital on Saturday after his health deteriorated. However, Arun's relatives have alleged negligence of the officials of Beur jail as the reason behind his death.
The scam involved siphoning of government funds by Srijan Mahila Vikas Sahyog Samiti (SMVSS), a self-help group of Bhagalpur. SMVSS, a co-operative society founded by late Manorama Devi in the early 1990s, is under CBI probe after the scam came to light. Amit Kumar, son of late Manorama, Rajni Priya, wife of Amit and several others are accused in the scam in which huge amounts of government funds were fraudulently transferred between 2004 and 2014 in the accounts of SMVSS.
Arun was holding the post of district welfare officer in Bhagalpur during the scam period. He was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2017 after the Srijan scam came to light. After staying in Bhagalpur jail for 2 months, he was shifted to Beur in Patna in 2018.
Two cases were registered against him by the CBI in the Srijan scam case. Apart from this, a case of money laundering was also lodged against him. His hearing in a case was to be held in the court of Patna soon.
Beur Central Jail superintendent Jitendra Kumar said Arun had been lodged there since 2018. He had hypothyroidism when lodged in Beur. He had continuously been in bad health since 2020. He was suffering from many diseases like brain tuberculosis and often used to faint. He was having medicines prescribed by the PMCH. On Saturday, he came to the jail hospital complaining of fever. He was given medicine, but his health deteriorated in the evening. Around 5pm, he had high fever, high blood pressure and breathlessness. Then he was admitted to the medical emergency of PMCH for better treatment. But he died during the night.