Key accused in NGO scam case dies, Oppn steps up attack on Nitish

BHAGALPUR/PATNA: A key arrested accused in the alleged multi-crore NGO fraud in Bihar’s Bhagalpur died of illness, police said on Monday, while the opposition RJD questioned the circumstances surrounding his death and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe into the “scam”.

As the opposition stepped up attack on him, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has already recommended a probe by the CBI in the scam, asserted that the “culprits will be traced even from ‘patal’ (beneath the earth)” and nobody will be spared.

Mahesh Mandal (57), nazir of Welfare Department, who was under arrest in the scam, died in course of treatment in a hospital late last night in Bhagalpur, Senior Superintendent of Police, Bhagalpur, Manoj Kumar said.

His both kidneys were damaged and he was surviving on dialysis, he said.

Mandal was arrested on Sunday in connection with the NGO scam in which over Rs 950 crore of government money was allegedly fraudulently transferred to a NGO “Srijan” working for women’s cause in Bhagalpur for years in alleged connivance with government employees and banks.

After his condition deteriorated in Camp jail of Bhagalpur, Mandal was taken to a hospital where he died late Sunday night, the SSP said.

Leader of Opposition Tejaswi Prasad Yadav raised questions on the circumstances surrounding Mandal’s death.