Patna, Jan. 5: A special vigilance court today ordered confiscation of assets of former Kaimur divisional forest officer, Bhola Prasad, a resident of Sandalpur village in Nalanda.
This was the fifth case in which confiscation of property was ordered against a serving public servant since 2011.
Special vigilance judge Om Prakash Sinha ordered the Patna district magistrate to initiate the confiscation process of properties of Prasad and his wife, Maya. They have been charged with accumulating unaccounted assets worth Rs 76.02 lakh. The court directed the magistrate to complete the confiscation process within a month.
Special public prosecutor (vigilance) Raj Nandan Prasad said a disproportionate assets case was lodged by the special vigilance unit police station in Patna against Bhola Prasad on February 27, 2007 when he was in office. The confiscation case was filed on May 31, 2010. The sleuths raided Prasad’s house and found Rs 15.9 lakh.
During investigation, the vigilance officials stumbled upon documents related to Prasad and his wife owning a building, six plots (total 22 cottah and 16 decimals) at Phulwarisharif in Patna, one plot (2 cottah) at Bahadurpur under Agamkuan police station in Patna, around 4 cottah land at Chitkohara in Patna, 6 cottah at Helal village in Ranchi and 20 decimal (100 decimals make an acre) at Biharsharif in Nalanda. The officials had fixed the check period from April 1982 to January 2007 for probe.
Earlier, the court had issued notices to Prasad and his wife, asking them to explain why disproportionate assets accumulated in their names should not be confiscated. The prosecution succeeded in presenting the fact before the court in right earnest, the court observed.
The special vigilance court had ordered the confiscation of earlier movable and immovable property of four public servants of Bihar, including suspended senior IAS officer S.S. Verma and former Patna treasury assistant Girish Kumar.
Patna district magistrate has already confiscated the disproportionate assets of Kumar and Verma. The state government has opened schools in both the officials’ houses in the Patna area.
