Bihar: Sushil Kumar Modi seeks removal of 'rice scam accused' agriculture minister

PATNA: Senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi (SuMo) on Sunday sought the removal of the state's new agriculture minister, Sudhakar Singh, from the cabinet for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore rice scam.
SuMo said Sudhakar, the son of RJD state president Jagdanand Singh, is accused of siphoning off Rs5.31 crore in the rice scam and was also sent to jail in this connection. Sudhakar was granted bail only after he deposited a cheque for Rs60 lakh, he alleged.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP office here, SuMo said two FIRs were registered against Sudhakar in 2013 by an officer of the State Food Corporation (SFC) on the charges of siphoning off milled rice worth Rs5.31 crore. Sudhakar owns two rice mills, namely Sone Valley Rice Mill and Sudhakar Rice Mill, in his home district Kaimur.
The former deputy chief minister of Bihar also pointed out that Sudhakar was still supposed to pay Rs12 crore - Rs5.31 crore principal amount with 12-year interest on it -- to the SFC. "How can CM Nitish Kumar keep such minister in his cabinet? Is it appropriate to keep a man who have not returned Rs12 crore of the state government, in the cabinet?" SuMo asked.
The SFC, as part of the state government's policy decision, had earlier provided lakhs of tonnes of paddy to different rice mills to convert into rice.
Agri min was jailed in rice scam case: SuMo
But many of the rice mill owners, including Sudhakar, didn’t return the actual quantity of rice they were supposed to, leading to the much-publicised rice scam worth over Rs300 crore across the state. SuMo cited the FIR registered with Ramgarh police station in Kaimur, in which Sudhakar is accused of siphoning off milled rice worth Rs 5.31 crore of the SFC. He was also sent to jail in the case.
“When Sudhakar approached the Patna high court for bail, it asked him to deposit Rs60 lakh. The high court granted him bail only after he deposited Rs60 lakh,” the BJP leader said. Interestingly, Sudhakar was earlier in the BJP and had unsuccessfully contested the 2010 assembly polls from Ramgarh on its symbol against RJD’s Ambika Prasad Yadav.
Then, Sudhakar’s father Jagadanand had campaigned against his son and ensured the victory of his RJD candidate. Though Sudhakar could not be reached for his comments, his party RJD claimed that the charges levelled by SuMo were baseless. “Since Modi has been sidelined in his own party, he is making all possible efforts to make his presence felt by levelling such allegations against the RJD leaders,” RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwary told TOI over phone.