A CBI court in Patna on Monday granted bail to the three persons arrested by the Bhagalpur police in connection with the illegal transfer of government funds worth Rs 1,400 crore to the Srijan Mahila Sahyog Samiti, an NGO.
This happened after the investigating officer in the ‘Srijan scam’ failed to file a charge sheet against these arrested accused persons within the stipulated 90-day period.
Special CBI Judge Ajay Kumar Srivastava granted bail to Rakesh Kumar, Prem Kumar (steno of Bhagalpur DM) and Satish Kumar Jha (auditor of Srijan).
“Records indicate accused Rakesh, Prem and Satish were arrested on August 12, 2017 and produced in court on August 13. They have completed 90 days in JC (judicial custody). In view of this, I extend the benefit of section 167 (2) (ii) CrPC to three accused, and they are givenbail,” the court said.
During the hearing, the CBI said that its investigation in the case was going on and it needed some more time to file the charge sheet against the accused.
In a related development, the CBI, on Monday, filed its fourth charge sheet in connection with the scam, this time against seven bank officials. Those named in the charge sheet were managing director of central co-operative bank Pankaj Kumar Jha, assistant manager of Indian bank P K Viswas, assistant manager of Indian bank Praveen Kumar, clerk of Indian bank Ajay Kumar Pandey, assistant manager of Indian Bank Subroto Das, another Indian bank employee Sriram K Jha and manager of central co-operative bank Harishankar Upadhyay.
{{/usCountry}}In a related development, the CBI, on Monday, filed its fourth charge sheet in connection with the scam, this time against seven bank officials. Those named in the charge sheet were managing director of central co-operative bank Pankaj Kumar Jha, assistant manager of Indian bank P K Viswas, assistant manager of Indian bank Praveen Kumar, clerk of Indian bank Ajay Kumar Pandey, assistant manager of Indian Bank Subroto Das, another Indian bank employee Sriram K Jha and manager of central co-operative bank Harishankar Upadhyay.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier, the CBI had filed two separate charge sheets against 12 people, including the NGO’s former chairperson Manorama Devi.
Those charge sheeted were Manorama Devi (who died in February), Sarita Jha (manager, Srijan), Ajay Kumar Pandey (clerk with Indian Bank), Barun Kumar Singh (senior branch Manager, Bank of Baroda), land acquisition officers Rakesh Kumar Jha and Rajiv Ranjan Singh, Mohammad Sarfarazuddin (Bank of Baroda, Bhagalpur), ex-manager of Bank of Baroda, Arun Kumar Singh, Indu Gupta, Vinod Kumar (a driver of a bank official), nazir of district board Rakesh Kumar and Taukir Qasim (assistant manager of Indian Bank, Bhagalpur).
The scam involves illegal diversion of government funds to the bank accounts of Srijan for private use in collusion with district officials, bankers and Srijan functionaries by forging signatures of officials, over several years.
Over 19 cases were filed in connection with the scam in Bhagalpur, Saharsa and Banka districts, on the basis of the statements of the officials concerned. Altogether 18 accused persons have been arrested so far. One of them died in judicial custody, recently.
The CBI took over the probe into the multi-crore Srijan scam in August this year.
Special public prosecutor of CBI, Akhtar Hussain Khan, said land acquisition officers Rakesh Kumar Jha and Rajiv Ranjan Singh besides Qasim, Sarfarazuddin and Indu Gupta were evading arrest.