Patna, Sept. 29: The person heading the CBI team investigating the Rs 1,000 crore fund transfer scam in Bhagalpur has been transferred.
CBI additional superintendent of police (ASP) S.K. Malik, who was chief of the 20-member team probing the transfer of government funds allegedly to the accounts of an NGO called Srijan Mahila Vikas Sahyog Samiti, has been shifted from Bhagalpur and asked to report to the CBI's headquarters in New Delhi, said highly placed sources in the agency. CBI ASP N. Mahto will replace Malik.
Malik, the sources said, had recently urged the CBI court to issue arrest warrants against some bureaucrats and politicians whose role in the scam was on the CBI's radar.
Mahto, who was posted in Delhi, has been asked to assume charge within two days.
Sources said the switch came soon after Malik submitted a preliminary report to the CBI headquarters. At least five IAS officers who had served as Bhagalpur district magistrate (DM) and three politicians with strong connections in the east Bihar district were under the CBI scanner.
Several politicians, bureaucrats and bank officials frequently visited Srijan's office in Bhagalpur to meet the NGO's late founder secretary Manorama Devi, a senior official said today under cover of anonymity. The names of those people figured during the CBI's interrogation of arrested persons, including office bearers of Srijan.
CBI officials yesterday quizzed clerks and assistants of the land acquisition department, the welfare department, the zila parishad and the district rural development agency for nearly six and a half hours. District treasury accountant Om Prakash Srivastava, land acquisition officer Om Prakash Poddar and zila parishad accountant Sunil Kumar were among those questioned.
The CBI has already sought permission from the court to shift all the 17 arrested accused to Patna's Beur Central Jail as the cases related to the scam would be heard in the special CBI court in the state capital. Earlier, ASP Malik had personally met special CBI judge Gayatri Kumari, who had granted permission to the investigating team to interrogate the accused in the jail.
On Wednesday, there was a theft attempt at the house - in Bhagalpur's New Bikramsheela Colony - of Amit Kumar and his wife Priya Kumar, the son and daughter-in-law of Srijan founder Manorama. Both Priya and Amit, prime accused in the fund transfer scam, are on the run ever since their names figured in swindling of government funds.
Two minor boys were spotted inside the premises of the house on Wednesday, authoritative sources said.
Tilka Manjhi police station house officer (SHO) Sanjay Kumar Biswas said the house, which belongs to Manorama, has been under the CBI's jurisdiction ever since the cases related to the scam were handed over to the central investigating team. 'We are not supposed to enter the building premises without the permission of the CBI officials,' the SHO said.
Another Bhagalpur police officer, who did not want to be named, said: 'We suspect the two boys might have tried to damage the locks of the house but did not succeed.'
A local resident said that the domestic helps have stopped visiting Manorama's house ever since Amit and his wife Priya went into hiding. The CBI has issued a red corner notice against the couple, who are suspected to have sneaked out of India.
So far, 19 FIRs have been lodged and 17 persons have been arrested in connection with the scam that has rocked political circles of the state with RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his sons going hammer and tongs over the issue at chief minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi.
