PATNA: The
Patna high court on Thursday called for case diary to hear the anticipatory bail petition of
Vijay Kumar and regular bail petitions of
Shiv Kumar Jha and
Praveen Kumar, all accused in the
toilet scam that surfaced in Patna last year.
Additional public prosecutor Ajay Mishra said that Vijay is secretary of an NGO named Ram Krishna Seva Mission in Danapur and had received Rs 25 lakh of the scam directly in his bank account.
“The matter came for hearing before the bench of Justice Vinod Kumar Sinha who called for the case diary to hear the matter again after a week. The special vigilance court in Patna had rejected his anticipatory bail on February 27 this year,” Mishra said adding that Vijay is yet to be nabbed by police.
“Jha was posted as assistant branch manager of State Bank of India’s Garhhatta Kala branch in Buxar during the scam, he was posted at the bank’s main branch at Gandhi Maidan in Patna. Praveen is husband of Suman Singh who was secretary of Adi Shakti Seva Sansthan of Biharsharif in Nalanda,” he said.
The Rs 15-crore scam surfaced last year when the then Patna district magistrate (DM) Sanjay Kumar Agarwal caught abrupt fund disbursal by the PHED office in Patna.
The amount of around Rs 15 crore was disbursed between May 1, 2016 and June 23, 2016 to several NGOs on name of constructing toilets in rural Patna even after central government had changed rules for toilet construction under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan scheme.
Patna Police sources said that primarily, 13 persons including PHED executive engineer Vinay Kumar Sinha and cashier Biteshwar Prasad Singh were the prime accused in the FIR lodged on November 2 last year but with development in the investigation, altogether 46 persons became accused in the scam.
“Altogether 22 accused were still behind bars including one Shanti Devi surrendered before court in Patna on Monday. One person was on bail. Police have got orders for attachment of property last week against four accused who are still evading arrest,” sources said.
They said that 23 accused were yet to be nabbed out of which high court have issued no-coercive action against couple of accused.
Picture for representational purpose only.