Toilet scam: Two more arrested for funds fraud

| Updated: Nov 11, 2017, 13:07 IST
Representative imageRepresentative image
PATNA: The Patna police on Friday arrested two more persons, Priti Bharti and Praveen Kumar Sharma, for their involvement in the Rs14.36 crore toilet scam which surfaced in the state capital last week. Priti, a data entry operator at PHED office in Patna, was arrested from Darbhanga while Praveen was nabbed from his residence at Indraprastha Colony in Ranchi, Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj said.

The central government fund meant for construction of toilets in rural areas under Clean India Mission was then handled by PHED office and were to be directly transferred into the bank accounts of people building toilets. But officials, instead, transferred the amount to different bank accounts of four non-government organizations (NGOs) and two private persons between May 1 and June 23 last year.

This is the third arrest in the case after the assistant branch manager of SBI Garhhatha Kala branch in Buxar, Shiv Kumar Jha, who was posted at the bank's main branch at Gandhi Maidan at the time of the scam, was held on Thursday. However, the then PHED executive engineer Vinay Kumar Singh and cashier Biteshwar Prasad Sigh, the kingpin of the scam, are still evading arrest.

The SSP said Rs2.97 lakh of the funds was transferred to the personal bank account of Priti. "She was the data operator in Vinay's office," he said.

"Praveen is the husband of Bobby Kumari, the president of Maa Sarveshwari Seva Sansthan of Bakhtiyarpur," he said, adding that incriminating documents related to the scam were seized from his house.


Sources said Rs2.14 crore was transferred into the sansthan's PNB bank account in Bakhtiyarpur. They also said Rs3.6 lakh was transferred into the Madhya Bihar Grameen Bank account of Rita Kumari, a resident of Rajauli in Nawada. She is also not arrested yet.


Sources said Uday Singh and Suman Singh of Adi Shakti Sevan Sansthan of Biharsharif in Nalanda, Manoj Kumar and Parmila Singh of Maa Sarveshwari Seva Sansthan, Mahendra Kumar of Satyam Shivam Kala Kendra of Jalalpur City, Shiv Shankar Rai, Balicharan Rai and Mahesh Prasad of Shiv Seva Sansthan of Maner along with Rita and the two government officials are still evading arrest.


Sources said Rs10.03 crore was transferred into Adi Shakti Seva Sansthan's Allahabad Bank account at Biharsharif while Rs1.52 crore was transferred to Satyam Shivam Kala Kendra and Rs6.71 lakh to Shiv Seva Sansthan.



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