New Delhi, July 19: The Bihar Chief Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar’s attempt to break bread with the judiciary after being named as one of the accused in the over Rs 11,500-crore treasury scam, failed on Sunday.
Top judges, including Supreme Court judge V.S. Sirpurkar, Patna High Court Chief Justice Rekha Manharlal Doshit and other judges stayed away from the lunch hosted by Mr Kumar at a Patna five-star hotel. Sources, meanwhile, disclosed that with the scam surfacing, Mr Kumar’s attempt to dump the BJP has been shelved.
A bureaucrat from Patna said this was a simple case of paperwork not completed in time.
The fodder scam during the tenure of Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav was around Rs 950 crores.
Along with Mr Kumar, the others named as accused by the court include the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Sushil Modi, and the health minister, Mr Nandkishore Yadav (both BJP). This is the biggest scam to hit Bihar. The fodder scam during the tenure of Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav was around Rs 950 crores.
Swinging into action a day after the Patna High Court ordered a CBI probe into the treasury scam, the Bihar chief secretary has asked all district magistrates in Bihar to submit detailed contingency bills (utilisation certificate of all money drawn from the treasury) before July 24. Incidentally, the CBI director will be visiting Patna to look into the scam on July 26.
Speaking to this newspaper, a bureaucrat from Patna, while refuting the charges of a scam, said, “This is a simple case of paperwork not completed in time.”
The alleged scam has put the Bihar Chief Minister on the back foot. Sources disclosed that Mr Kumar, who was trying to wriggle out of the alliance with the BJP, would now have to remain committed to coalition politics.
According to reports emanating from Bihar, the advocate-general, Mr P.K. Sahi, who had met the Patna High Court Chief Justice, indicated that attending the lunch would send wrong signals. Sources revealed that the lunch “had to be cancelled after the judges declined to attend.”
Incidentally, following the surfacing of the scam, a section in the BJP state unit has now begun mounting pressure on the saffron high command to dictate terms to Mr Kumar. They are also pressing for getting the Gujarat Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, to campaign in Bihar. Mr Kumar has made it clear that he is against Mr Modi campaigning in the state.