Patna, March 14: Animal husbandry minister Giriraj Singh found himself in a soup today with the Opposition charging him with “promoting” a conman Rudradev Pratap who is alleged to have vanished after defrauding the people of about Rs 150 crore.

Leader of the Opposition Abdul Bari Siddiqui accused the minister of helping Pratap, who, through his voluntary organisation Muskan, is alleged to have fleeced unemployed youths by offering them jobs at the block and panchayat level after taking money from them and then doing a disappearing act with his associates last year.

The BJP minister, who then held the cooperative portfolio, attended a grand function organised by Pratap at SK Memorial Hall in Patna on June 7, 2010.

The treasury benches strongly defended the government for its action against Pratap and his associates, but remained mum on Siddiqui’s charges against the minister.

“Giriraj and NDA leaders not only attended the meeting, the minister also made a statement that he would impart free training to the persons who were joining the organisation. He even went on to make a statement that after the Muskan scheme was implemented, there would be no shortage of milk in Bihar,” Siddiqui said, pointing out that Pratap had adopted the name of his NGO from a centrally sponsored scheme. This, Siddiqui contended, had created confusion among the people that Pratap’s scheme was a centrally sponsored one.

Singh appeared to have gone on the backfoot in the face of the Opposition assault. “I went to the programme because the organisation was speaking about a scheme which would benefit the state. My government did not show any mercy when it learned that the whole thing was a fraud,” Singh said. The minister insisted that when he attended the function and said: “I had no information about any case against Pratap and learnt that he (Pratap) had even distributed 50 cows in Ara.”

The minister, however, conceded that he did not care to look at the “certificates” of persons who invited him to their functions.

According to Siddiqui, Pratap — who had a honorific ‘Dr’ prefixed to his name — floated his NGO and took money from around 4,000 youths in the name of running Kisan Haat, Kisan Gaushala, Sramodaya Vidyalaya, a dairy besides other initiatives under Muskan and offered them jobs as district coordinators, programme coordinators, Kisan Sewaks etc and even cows at a subsidised rate of Rs 11,000.

Siddiqui, who displayed a thick dossier on the entire episode, demanded a CBI probe into the issue. He alleged that Pratap had taken away at least Rs 150 crore of public money. “Ruling party MLAs are intervening that at least Rs 1,000 crore has been swindled,” the leader of the Opposition said.

Water resources minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary, replying to Siddiqui’s question, pointed out that the labour superintendent of Patna had filed a case against Pratap and three others on March 23, 2010.

Investigations revealed that the NGO, which was registered in New Delhi in 2007, was raising money from the people on the pretext of giving them jobs. The chargesheet against the accused persons was submitted on September 30, 2010, but they obtained bail from the court. Later Pratap, in December 2010, filed a case in the local court, charging one Bijendra Tiwari and 11 others with trying to kidnap him.

However, investigations by the Pataliputra police station revealed that the case was a ploy to save himself from persons who were demanding their money back.

Choudhary also disclosed that another case was registered against Pratap and others on the basis of a complaint received in the chief minister’s Janata Darbar on March 7 this year. He also said a case against Pratap and others had been registered with the Paharganj police station, New Delhi, in 2003 in which the accused were charged with taking money from youths in the name of issuing fake appointment letters of the Airports Authority of India.

“Even before the leader of the Opposition had raised the issue, the government had taken action against the accused persons and we will not spare anyone,” Choudhary stressed, asking Siddiqui to give all his documents to pursue the matter.

The minister in his reply, however, did not utter a word in defence of Giriraj Singh. “There needs to be a verification of the organisation which holds a function before a public figure accepts an invitation. The presence of ministers, MLAs and MPs in a function only lends credit to the organisation hosting the show,” said a senior minister, who did not wish to be named.