I-T raid at Sushil Modi’s sister Rekha’s house

Officials of Income Tax Department on Thursday conducted raids at the residence of Rekha Modi, sister of Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi.

The raid, which started at 12 noon, was going on till the time of reporting. The IT sleuths have carried out search operations at her SP Verma Road residence as well as a business establishment Jalan Shop.

Rekha Modi was in the news recently after her name cropped up in the Rs 2000-crore Srijan scam. Former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav had, of late, released documentary evidence to show how Rekha Modi and Urvashi Modi (niece of Sushil Modi) were paid crores by the Srijan scam accused.

Incidentally, Sushil Modi has an estranged relationship with his sister for the last few years. But the Opposition has dragged his name in the Srijan scam on the plea that as Bihar’s Finance Minister from 2005 till date (barring 2013-17), Modi should be held accountable for embezzlement of the fund to the tune of around Rs 2000 crore.

WHAT IS SRIJAN SCAM?

Srijan scam came to light on August 3, 2017, 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 Manorama Devi, who reportedly flaunted her connections with politicians and bureaucrats and helped Srijan spread its tentacles.

Altogether 17 persons, including Prem Kumar, the personal assistant (PA) of Bhagalpur District Magistrate, were arrested after nine FIRs were lodged by the police. Later, when it was found that the embezzled fund had crossed Rs 1000 crore, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ordered a CBI probe into the scam.

The CBI investigation is on. And so is the Income Tax raid.