Bhagalpur, Aug. 13: The tentacles of the "Srijan scam" of government funds being pilfered also encompassed the health department in Bhagalpur district, the special investigation team (SIT) has found.

Money amounting to Rs 40,75,483 was transferred from the department to the accounts of the Srijan Mahila Vikas Sahyog Samiti Ltd, the SIT has found, and an FIR was registered with the local police over it last late evening. Bhagalpur senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manoj Kumar said the amount was transferred in December 2016 to the account of the NGO instead of the department's account with the Bank of Baroda.

The pilferage of Rs 47 crore from the district welfare department has been found to be actually Rs 80 crore, and SIT sleuths who spoke off the record are not ruling out the pilferage of even larger amounts.

The total extent of the scam, as of now, is Rs 764 crore.

The surfacing of the scam in the district health department sent district officials into a tizzy. District magistrate (DM) Adesh Titarmare called an emergency meeting late last evening with senior district officials from all departments and instructed them to check the bank accounts of each department.

"If we have updated the account details of all the departments, we easily could assess the actual situation and also could calculate the loss to the government exchequer exactly," DM Titarmare said.

The SIT sleuths conducted raids at the office of the state health department here and examined documents. SSP Manoj was present during the operation at the health department office. The SIT also quizzed civil surgeon Dr Vijay Kumar and health department manager Faizan over aspects like details of accounts.

Large amounts flow to the health department from the government every month for the department to meet expenses such as building construction, food for in-patients in hospitals, and generators. Since 2007, the district has had four civil surgeons apart from Vijay Kumar: Dr Prativa Modi, Dr Niranjan Mishra, Dr Uday Shanker Choudhary, and Dr Sobha Sinha.

Vijay late last evening registered the FIR with the Tilka Manjhi police station against the Bank of Baroda branch and the person concerned of the NGO over the pilfered money. SSP Manoj said a police team has been assigned for ensuring the arrest of former branch manager of the bank, A.K. Singh.

The Bhagalpur branch of the bank, it is learnt, has not yet handed over to the SIT some documents including transaction vouchers of 2016-2017. The present branch manager, Navin Kumar Saha, expressed helplessness to the SIT. However, chief manager of the bank D.B. Mukhopadhyay, who reached Bhagalpur last evening, assured the SIT that all required documents will be provided soon.

Shahnawaz clarifies

BJP national spokesperson and former MP from Bhagalpur Syed Shahnawaz Hussain today condemned "rivals" who have tried to tag his name to the fund-transfer scam after a picture of him at a Srijan event was published.

Talking to The Telegraph over phone from New Delhi, he said before the scam came to light everybody knew Manorama Devi, the late founder of the NGO, as a social worker who works for the empowerment and uplift of poor rural women. Whenever he visited the Srijan office in Sabour block in the capacity of a public representative, he saw a large number of poor women from rural backgrounds there, Shahnawaz said.

"Not only me, many politicians and others had the idea that the NGO was really working for the poor," the BJP leader said. "If you (the media) had any indication about such illegal

activities happening at the NGO, why didn't you file reports on them earlier?"

He denied any involvement in the illegal activities of the NGO and demanded a CBI probe into the scam.