Patna: Senior RJD leader and national vice-president of the party Shivanand Tiwari on Friday charged the CBI and the state government of covering up the over Rs 1,300 crore Srijan scam.

"It's almost a year since the FIR in the Srijan scam was filed and the case handed over to the CBI but there is no report from the CBI or the government regarding developments in the case," Tiwari said. "I remember how CBI joint director U.N. Biswas used to brief the press every day on developments in the fodder scam."

He cited how Patna High Court lawyer Basant Kumar Choudhary had filed a right to information (RTI) query asking what had transpired in the Srijan case but the CBI said they were not liable to reply.

"The CBI's activities prove they want to cover up the case. It is evident from the fact that kingpin Amit Kumar and his wife Priya Kumar, who ran Srijan Mahila Vikas Sahayog Samiti after Manorama Devi's death, had not been arrested. What kind of probe is this? Only small fish have been held. CBI is filing chargesheets but where are the kingpin," Tiwari asked.

Asked why the CBI was going slow, Tiwari said: "As far as I know the kingpin are kin of a senior CBI officer at headquarters. They want to cover up the case. It can't happen without chief minister Nitish Kumar and deputy chief minister Sushil Modi's support."

Tiwari also said that as per police records government money was being transferred to Srijan since 2007 but the CBI has not yet interrogated district magistrates of Bhagalpur, custodian of the treasury, till date.

Recently, four government departments that lost around Rs 975 crore from their accounts from local branches of the Indian Bank and the Bank of Baroda (BoB) because of the Srijan funds transfer scam, have threatened legal action if their money was not refunded immediately.

The CBI has set up a camp office in Bhagalpur after the state government handed over the case to it.