<div align="justify">The Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the pilferage of government fund to the tune of around Rs 500 crore by a Bhagalpur-based NGO, on Friday arrested Prem Kumar, private assistant (PA) of Bhagalpur District Magistrate Adesh Titarmare.<br /><br />This was the seventh arrest made in the treasury loot case, which came into light a couple of days ago when Chief Minister Nitish Kumar disclosed that some government officials in Bhagalpur, with the help of bank and NGO staff, had syphoned off hundreds of crores.<br /><br />Preliminary investigations indicated that around Rs 355.7 crore were fraudulently transferred from three heads – land acquisition (Rs 270 crore), urban development schemes (Rs 70.7 crore) and district administration (Rs 15 crore) – into the account of an NGO, Srijan Sahyog Mahila Samiti.<br /><br />This NGO, which started as a self-help group comprising 10 women, and operating from one-room office at Sabour in Bhagalpur, now runs a cooperative bank with 5000 account holders. The NGO is at the centre of an investigation after being charged with swindling hundreds of crores from government accounts.<br /><br />“The sum involved may increase,” said Bihar Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, who, after Bhagalpur episode, has ordered physical verification of all the accounts maintained by all the district administration throughout the State.<br /><br />The scam is being investigated by SIT headed by IG, Economic Offences Wing (EOW), JS Gangwar.<br /><br />“The modus operandi (in this financial embezzlement) involved the complicity of Srijan office-bearers with bank officials, who managed to transfer funds from district administration account into their own with the help of forged signatures of the district magistrate,” said the Chief Secretary. “The involvement of custodians of respective accounts into which the State Government transferred funds under different heads cannot be ruled out. Hence three separate FIRs have been lodged at Bhagalpur,” the top official added.<br /><br />Meanwhile, RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Friday demanded that Nitish should immediately sack his deputy Sushil Modi, who is also Bihar’s Finance Minister, and order a CBI probe into the scam which could be of higher amount. “I also appeal to PM Narendra Modi to order CBI investigation into the scam so as to unravel the truth,” said Lalu in Ranchi.<br /><br />The entire scam came to light when a cheque of Rs 2.5 crore, issued by Bhagalpur DM Adesh Titarmare, was recently dishonoured by Indian Bank. The DM ordered probe which revealed that Rs 10.26 crore had been fraudulently withdrawn by Srijan using forged signature of the district magistrate. The clerk of the treasury Amrendra Yadav eventually lodged an FIR against Srijan and bank officials. <br /><br /></div>
<div align="justify">The Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the pilferage of government fund to the tune of around Rs 500 crore by a Bhagalpur-based NGO, on Friday arrested Prem Kumar, private assistant (PA) of Bhagalpur District Magistrate Adesh Titarmare.<br /><br />This was the seventh arrest made in the treasury loot case, which came into light a couple of days ago when Chief Minister Nitish Kumar disclosed that some government officials in Bhagalpur, with the help of bank and NGO staff, had syphoned off hundreds of crores.<br /><br />Preliminary investigations indicated that around Rs 355.7 crore were fraudulently transferred from three heads – land acquisition (Rs 270 crore), urban development schemes (Rs 70.7 crore) and district administration (Rs 15 crore) – into the account of an NGO, Srijan Sahyog Mahila Samiti.<br /><br />This NGO, which started as a self-help group comprising 10 women, and operating from one-room office at Sabour in Bhagalpur, now runs a cooperative bank with 5000 account holders. The NGO is at the centre of an investigation after being charged with swindling hundreds of crores from government accounts.<br /><br />“The sum involved may increase,” said Bihar Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, who, after Bhagalpur episode, has ordered physical verification of all the accounts maintained by all the district administration throughout the State.<br /><br />The scam is being investigated by SIT headed by IG, Economic Offences Wing (EOW), JS Gangwar.<br /><br />“The modus operandi (in this financial embezzlement) involved the complicity of Srijan office-bearers with bank officials, who managed to transfer funds from district administration account into their own with the help of forged signatures of the district magistrate,” said the Chief Secretary. “The involvement of custodians of respective accounts into which the State Government transferred funds under different heads cannot be ruled out. Hence three separate FIRs have been lodged at Bhagalpur,” the top official added.<br /><br />Meanwhile, RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Friday demanded that Nitish should immediately sack his deputy Sushil Modi, who is also Bihar’s Finance Minister, and order a CBI probe into the scam which could be of higher amount. “I also appeal to PM Narendra Modi to order CBI investigation into the scam so as to unravel the truth,” said Lalu in Ranchi.<br /><br />The entire scam came to light when a cheque of Rs 2.5 crore, issued by Bhagalpur DM Adesh Titarmare, was recently dishonoured by Indian Bank. The DM ordered probe which revealed that Rs 10.26 crore had been fraudulently withdrawn by Srijan using forged signature of the district magistrate. The clerk of the treasury Amrendra Yadav eventually lodged an FIR against Srijan and bank officials. <br /><br /></div>
