Rs 700 cr Srijan scam rocks Bihar Assembly

The first death in the Rs 700 crore-Srijan scam rocked the Bihar Assembly here on Monday. The principal Opposition party RJD charged the Nitish Government with turning Srijan scam into a Vyapam scam (of Madhya Pradesh) where several accused died under mysterious circumstances or committed suicide.

One of those arrested in the Srijan scam Mahesh Mandal, a clerk in the district welfare department, suffering from kidney ailment, died on Sunday at 11 pm.

Though the government claimed Mandal died while undergoing treatment at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College in Bhagalpur, his brother Dinesh Mandal alleged that his brother “was allowed to die” as he would have revealed the names of many big fish involved in the scam.

Srijan scam came to light on August 3 when it was detected by Bhagalpur district magistrate Adesh Titarmare that there has been pilferage of government fund to the tune of around Rs 500 crore by a Bhagalpur-based NGO, Srijan.

An investigation by top cops 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 the NGO, Srijan Sahyog Mahila Samiti.

Srijan was run by a social worker Manorma Devi, who reportedly flaunted her connections with politicians and bureaucrats and helped Srijan spread its tentacles.

In all 12 persons including Prem Kumar, the personal assistant (PA) of Bhgalpur District Magistrate, were arrested after nine FIRs were lodged by the police this month.