Ram Prasad Jalan shows his documents at the janata durbar in Ranchi on Monday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, Sept. 15: The first complaint to come up today at Shibu Soren’s maiden janata durbar — a routine PR exercise chief ministers indulge in to put a shine on their public face — was against himself.

A local travel agent came up with the stunning revelation that bills worth Rs 1.76 lakh for the air travel of Soren and his confidants in 2005, during his first stint as chief minister, were yet to be cleared by the government.

“Air travel bills of Rs 1.76 lakh are pending since March 2005. The services of Indian Airlines was availed of by Soren, Bandhu Tirkey (HRD minister), A. Devi and others. Trips were made to Delhi and Patna but they forgot or simply did not care to pay my bills,” alleged Ram Prasad Jalan, proprietor of Garima Air Travel here.

Unluckily for Jalan, Soren hadn’t taken his chair at the public hearing when he was there, but embarrassed officials at the chief minister’s secretariat went into a mad scramble to silence the travel agent.

Jalan was bundled out of the durbar with the assurance that his bills would be cleared. Later, Soren told The Telegraph his allegations would be looked into. “Justice,” he said, “will be done to everybody.” Documents in Jalan’s possession suggested that tickets were booked by the chief minister’s office for air travel on 7, 9 and 11 March 2005 — the time when Soren was chief minister and his tenure lasted all of nine days. The aggrieved businessmen added he had approached the chief minister’s secretariat, the finance department and even routed an application using the Right to Information Act (RTI). But nothing came of his efforts.

“In business money comes and goes. I could not meet the chief minister today as I was removed from the place. They told me if anyone now asked about pending bills, I should keep my mouth shut. I have been promised early payment,” Jalan told this correspondent. Jalan’s bills were for the air travel of Soren and his entourage: Rs 35,000 (on 7, March 2005), Rs 29,170 (9, March 2005) and Rs 1,11, 985 (11, March 2005). Apart from Soren, those who travelled on the tickets were G. Singh, Bandhu Tirkey, A. Devi, M. R. N. Ansari and B. Chatterjee.