Sticking to its demand for sacking of the Nitish Kumar government in the light of the CAG report on alleged withdrawl of money from the state treasuries, opposition RJD on Saturday said it was a 'systematic and merciless' plunder of the state exchequer and accused the state government of trying to 'forestall' a CBI probe.
''Why are you (Nitish Kumar) worrried when you have not committed any offence ?'' RJD spokesman Shakeel Ahmed Khan and its General Secretary Ramkripal Yadav said talking to reporters here.
''The state government is making a sinister bid to forestall a probe by CBI into non-reconciliation of the advances of Rs 11,412 crore drawn from the state treasuries on abstract contingent (AC) bills which is fraudulent in nature,'' Khan said.
Khan, a senior lawyer of the Patna High Court and former law minister, said the court had rightly observed that huge amounts have been 'systematically and mercilessly' plundered in the state with purposive and complete absence of government attention and it must be investigated by CBI, which is beyond the reach of the state government.
Commenting on the recent ruling of Speaker Udai Narayan Choudhary that no agencies would be allowed to interfere in the matter being examined by the Public Accounts Committee of the house, Khan said the cases of fraudulent nature formed a criminal offence and only a prosecuting agency had the authority to bring the culprits to justice.
{{/usCountry}}Commenting on the recent ruling of Speaker Udai Narayan Choudhary that no agencies would be allowed to interfere in the matter being examined by the Public Accounts Committee of the house, Khan said the cases of fraudulent nature formed a criminal offence and only a prosecuting agency had the authority to bring the culprits to justice.
{{/usCountry}}''The state government should have supported the inquiry by an independent agency instead of making attempts to forestall the investigation, which is also an offence,'' he said.
Equating the present case to the multi-crore rupees fodder scam, Khan recalled that two of the chairmen of the Public Accounts Committee, Jagdish Sharma and Dhruv Bhagat, were put behind the bars by CBI on similar charge of forestalling the inquiry.
He also took a pot-shot at the ruling NDA in the state for not sparing even the Rajbhavan in the controversy and said RJD would continue its agitation for the ouster of the Nitish Kumar government.