Bihar ‘scam’ key accused dies, Oppn targets Nitish

Bhagalpur/Patna, August 21 

A key accused arrested in the alleged multi-crore NGO fraud in Bihar’s Bhagalpur died of illness, the police said today, while the Opposition RJD questioned the circumstances surrounding his death and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe into the “scam”.

As the Opposition stepped up attack on him, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has already recommended a probe by the CBI in the scam, asserted that the “culprits would be traced even from ‘patal’ (beneath the earth)” and nobody would be spared.

Mahesh Mandal (57), nazir of Welfare Department, who was under arrest in the scam, died in course of treatment at a hospital late last night in Bhagalpur, Senior Superintendent of Police, Bhagalpur, Manoj Kumar said. His both kidneys were damaged and he was surviving on dialysis, he said.

Mandal was arrested on Sunday in connection with the NGO scam in which over Rs 950 crore of government money was allegedly fraudulently transferred to NGO “Srijan”, working for women’s cause in Bhagalpur for years in alleged connivance with government employees and banks.

After his condition deteriorated in Camp jail of Bhagalpur, Mandal was taken to a hospital where he died late last night, the SSP said.

Leader of Opposition Tejaswi Prasad Yadav raised questions on the circumstances surrounding Mandal’s death. “He was killed by people in the government to bury truth of the scam,” Tejaswi, flanked by his brother and former minister Tej Pratap Yadav, alleged outside the state Assembly.

His mother Rabri Devi, who is Leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Council, demanded resignation of CM Nitish Kumar and Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi for “a fair probe into the scam”. — PTI

2002 letter surfaces

• A letter purportedly written by an employee of the state cooperative department in Bhagalpur in 2002 surfaced on Monday 
• In the letter to head office, the employee had urged the department to probe some “irregularities” linked to the NGO scam
• Instead of taking the letter seriously, the employee was reprimanded and was denied two increments, sources claimed

It is ‘bigger’ than Vyapam

The NGO scam is even bigger than Vyapam in Madhya Pradesh in which custodians of government money themselves facilitated loot of treasury. — Tejaswi Yadav, Bihar Former Deputy CM