Welfare officer’s flat raided in ₹700cr Bihar govt fund scam
A joint team of economic offence unit (EOU) and special investigating team (SIT) on Monday raided the flat of the district welfare officer at Bhagalpur in east Bihar in connection with the more than Rs 700-crore government fund transfer scam.
Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manoj Kumar said the Shyam Kunj Apartment flat of Arun Kumar in Khanjarpur area of Bhagalpur, 229 km east of Patna, was raided after “convincing evidences of his involvement in the scam was found by the EOU and the SIT, probing the financial irregularities”.
“It has been detected that the welfare officer and his wife had received property and jewellery worth crores of rupees as gift,” Kumar said.
The inquiry also revealed funds from the account of tainted non-governmental organisation, Srijan Mahila Sahayog Samiti, was transferred to the account of DWO’s wife, the SSP said.
Meanwhile, sources said the probe teams had collected major evidences during the raid. The evidences could be significant in further digging out facts related to the scam, the sources added. The sources also did not rule out the arrest of the DWO.
If taken into custody, he would be the first officer to be arrested in connection with the scam, the sources added.
The initial probe into the scam had detected that government
funds for land acquisition, urban development, besides many other heads kept in banks were diverted to Srijan for private use in collusion with government and bank officials.
Earlier, Mahesh Mandal, nazir of welfare department, was picked up by the joint team of EOU and SIT from his house at Pista village in Jagdishpur block of Bhagalpur district late on Sun- day night.
Mandal has been posted in the welfare department for quite a long time.
Sources said property related documents and bank passbooks were recovered from the house of Mandal during the raid. On basis of inputs provided by Mandal, raids were conducted at some other places.
So far eight FIRs have been registered and eight persons, including bank officials and government employees, have been arrested in connection with the fraudulent transfer of government fund from different departments to the NGO.
Action is also likely to be initiated soon against some officials of land acquisition department, with the joint EOU-SIT team collecting evidences of their involvement in the scam.