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With the decision of Bihar government to recommend the much talked Srijan scam to CBI investigation this evening, real investigation now expected to

Government of Bihar under Nitish Kumar was on constant pressure as the opposition has started creating an atmosphere while projecting several instances as lapses in the investigation. Last night’s high value drama by Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, former deputy chief minister is said be one reason for handing over the case to CBI.

However,  former bureaucrats and financial experts concerned have started rising heir doubt over the direction of the investigation initiated by Economic Offence Unit (EOU), Bihar.

V S Dubey, former chief secretary was quite surprised first to understand the modus of operandi of transfer of fund by Bhagalpur district administration to  the Srijan NGO and secondly the way the investigation started concentrating on very small people for their involvements in it.

Dubey expressed his serious concerned over the issue and said how various government  departments in Bhagalpur district can deposit their funds with the said NGO, how such practice was adopted since more than last 10 years.

He said if it is a fact that the funds belonging to different government departments were deposited with the said concern officers could not be spare either the charges of connivance in criminal conspiracy will be imposed or disciplinary actions would be initiated against them may caused their termination also. “The present investigation should focus and investigate the history of transfer of funds by the government officials by the said NGO for logical conclusion of the case” he added further. He expressed surprised over how that the government funds were parked with the NGO and why the investigation yet not taken the matter in its fold?

Financial experts concerned while echoing Dubey  said that  the way the special investigating team ( SIT) is investigating, it may not reached to the logical conclusion of the fraud committed by transferring of funds to the said illegal Srijan NGO. The SIT has confined the investigation to the extent of ultimate loss of government funds directly in the hands of the said illegal bank of Srijan NGO, where as the actual offence is the system adopted by the various departments to deposit their funds with the illegal bank of the Srijan NGO. Unlike innocent people how government officials could deposit government funds with the illegal bank is a million dollar question. The real scam is diversion of funds to the illegal bank for utilization  of funds by the said NGO as per their sweet will to generate income out of it.

SIT should quantify the amount transferred by the various government departments during different years to make responsible the concerned officials, irrespective of the fact whether the said amount was returned back or ultimately embezzled by the Srijan NGO, the experts said.

They claimed that it is an unique scam first time in its nature in Bihar where the practice of transfer of funds was adopted by the government officials for a long period. The real conspirator of the scam are those people who initiated and developed the practice of deposit of government funds with the illegal bank. Government officials who followed the same corrupt practice in due course, could not be spared from the investigation.

The experts alleged SIT for concentrating only on the issue to the extent of ultimate loss of funds. Where it should immediate identify those who earlier were involved in such transactions as the present lost is caused due to the old continue corrupt practice of keeping funds with Srijan NGO.

The investigation emphasized on the tempered bank statement and made it one of the bases for committing fraud, appears to be very weak evidence in the context of such a serious nature of fraud. Experts say that bank statement is not a certificate of balance with the bank, it is a mare statement of transaction with the bank issued to account holders for the purpose of reconciliation of their transactions. One could not confirm the balance with the bank on a particular day on basis of bank statement only. The failure of the controlling officer and the auditors of the government fund to obtain confirmation of balance certificate from the bank periodically could not be ignored while investigating such a fraud, the experts pointed out.

Sushil Man Shingh Khopde, inspector general of police, Bhagalpur range which contracted said since SIT has been assigned by the state government for conducting the probe, so police has only the role to assist the investigation one the lines of economic offence unit, Bihar.

However according  to senior superintendent of police, Monoj Kumar who has been assisting the SIT, said in one case the fund of land acquisition department of Rs 270 crore was transferred fraudulently in the swipe account of the said NGO from  July 16, 2014 to January 5, 2015. SIT should investigate the intension behind keeping  such a huge amount of government fund unutilized for round two and half years, why the government released such the  huge amount to the district when  the district officer didn’t intended to utilize the amount in near future, raises the doubt on the conspiracy by the government officer by the Srijan NGO, pointed out the experts.

The whistle blower in the year 2013 against the illegal bank, Sanjit Kumar, a charted account, stated that the SIT should investigate about the investigation report submitted by the than district cooperative officer, Pankaj Jha and senior deputy collector Sudhir Kumar upon the direction of the  then district magistrate, Bhagalpur on his complain. SIT should also investigate about the action taken by the than register of cooperatives, government of Bihar on the direction of RBI upon complain to the minister of finance, government of India by him again when no action was taken by the district administration on issue.

Senior advocate, Supreme court of India, Ashoka Kumar Thakur, said that ultimately the present case would have be investigated by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) the real culprits involved couldn’t be spared.