Two serving and two retired IAS officers are among 10 persons who face the likelihood of being booked by the state vigilance investigation bureau, for their alleged role in irregularities in a body tasked with the welfare of dalits in Bihar.
One of these IAS officers is at present acting chairman of the Bihar Land tribunal (BLT).
According to sources, the vigilance bureau has found enough evidence against all these 10 persons in the glaring financial lapses detected in the Bihar Mahadalit Vikas Nigam, which started functioning in 2010.
“They may be arrested soon,” said an official, adding, all the programmes run under the corporation are under the vigilance scanner and involved a questionable expenditure of several crores of rupees.
The corporation runs several schemes for the welfare of the scheduled caste people, including radio scheme, helpline centres, special schools-cum-hostels, Dasrath Manjhi Kaushal Vikas Yojana and a dress scheme, among others.
The corporation had accepted tenders for the training SC candidates and offering other facilities from companies called Sriram New Horizon and IIIM Limited.
“However, investigations have revealed false data of trainees was used during the 2010-16 period to show inflated expenditure, which seems to have been done in an organized manner,” said the official.
{{/usCountry}}“However, investigations have revealed false data of trainees was used during the 2010-16 period to show inflated expenditure, which seems to have been done in an organized manner,” said the official.
{{/usCountry}}When the irregularities surfaced, the corporation wrote about it to the chief secretary, who handed over the probe to vigilance bureau.
Sources said DG Vigilance Ravindra Kumar constituted a team under DSP Arun Kumar to verify the allegations, which were found to be prima facie true and a vigilance case (FIR No 81/17) was registered under various sections of IPC including 406, 409, 420, 467, 468, 471a and 120b.
The two serving IAS officers facing the heat are Former chief executive officers of the corporation SM Raju and Ravi Manubhai Parmar. The retired IAS officer under the scanner are KP Ramaiah, also a former CEO and former director Ramashish Paswan.
Retired BPS officer Prabhat Kumar, Dev Jani, Umesh Kumar Manjhi, Sharad Kumar Jha, Saurabh Vasu and Jaideep Kau have been made accused in a scam of Rs 4 crore.
At present, Ramaiah is the acting chairman of BLT.
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