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Regular-article-logo Tuesday, 19 March 2024

ED seizes assets of BSEB scam

Amit Kumar alias Bachcha Rai is in jail

Ramashankar Patna Published 16.10.18, 07:15 PM
ED confiscated altogether 28 properties disproportionate to his known sources of income under Hajipur sadar, Bhagwanpur and Patepur blocks in Vaishali district on Monday

ED confiscated altogether 28 properties disproportionate to his known sources of income under Hajipur sadar, Bhagwanpur and Patepur blocks in Vaishali district on Monday Prem Singh

The enforcement directorate (ED) has started confiscating moveable and immovable assets of Amit Kumar alias Bachcha Rai, jailed kingpin of the 2016 Intermediate Toppers scam related to the Bihar School Examination Board. Bachcha, the suspended principal of Vishun Roy College, Kiratpur in Vaishali district, is at present lodged in Beur central jail here.

A 10-member team of the ED confiscated altogether 28 properties disproportionate to his known sources of income under Hajipur sadar, Bhagwanpur and Patepur blocks in Vaishali district on Monday. These included a house and a plot in Hajipur district headquarters town, 13 plots and houses at Bhagwanpur, 11 plots at Chehrakalan and two plots at Patepur in Vaishali district.

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A senior official said that Bachcha’s two other properties — one each in Patna and Saraikela in Jharkhand — have not been attached. Sources said that the two properties had not been confiscated as Bachcha had requested the court not to do so on humanitarian grounds. However, the court had directed Bachcha to hand over the rent to the ED.

Sources said the plots were purchased in the name of Bachcha’s wife Sangeeta Rai, daughter Shalini Rai and other close relatives. The registered deeds show that the properties were purchased at Rs 2 crore. The market value of the seized property was worth Rs 10 crore. An under-construction college at Chehrakalan near Mahua in Vaishali was also confiscated.

The ED had received a proposal from the economic offences unit of the Bihar police to attach movable and immovable property of Bachcha under the provision of Prevention of Money Laundering Act on March 31. Subsequently, an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) was registered by the probe agency.

The scam rocked the state in June 2016 when Ruby Rai, a student of V.R. College, Kiratpur (Bhagwanpur) in Vaishali district, who had topped the Arts category in the Intermediate examination conducted by the Bihar School Examination Board, failed to answer basic questions and went on to describe political science as “prodigal science” that taught cooking.

Embarrassed by the irregularities, the state government ordered an investigation by a special investigation team. An FIR was lodged with the Kotwali police station in Patna on the directive of then BSEB chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh. Later, Lalkeshwar was arrested for involvement in the scam. The ED initiated the process of confiscating ill-gotten assets of Bachcha and others accused in the case.

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