PATNA: Legislators of Bihar’s Opposition parties RJD, Congress and CPI(ML) on Thursday created ruckus in the Assembly demanding the dismissal of chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, who has been summoned by a special CBI court in Ranchi in connection with a fodder scam case.
Former chief minister and RJD national vice-president Rabri Devi accused CBI of deliberately leaving out guilty officials and targeting top political executives like CM. Her husband Lalu Prasad Yadav, who had resigned as Bihar CM in 1997 after seven years in office, is currently in jail after being convicted in three cases of the Rs 1,000-crore scam.
Anjani Kumar Singh, who was due for retirement on February 28 but was given a three-month extension, and seven others were on Tuesday issued notices by Ranchi special CBI court judge Shivpal Singh seeking to declare them a accused in the scam’s Dumka treasury case. The 1981-batch IAS officer was posted as deputy commissioner (DC) of Dumka in undivided Bihar when illegal withdrawal of funds took place between December 1995 and January 1996. He has been asked to appear in person on March 28.
Soon after proceedings of the Assembly started for the day, RJD legislators Bhola Yadav and Shakti Singh Yadav demanded immediate dismissal of Singh. Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary’s requests that the MLAs let the Question Hour proceed fell on deaf ears as other RJD legislators raised the same demands in loud voices. They were joined by MLAs of Congress and CPI(ML), who together created ruckus, forcing an adjournment of the proceedings.
MLAs of the three parties questioned Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s decision to give the “tainted official” an extension. Similar demands for his dismissal were also made in the Legislative Council by the Opposition MLCs.
“Officials in the districts such as the district magistrate were involved in this scam, but CBI deliberately left them out and went for top politicians such as CM. He (chief secretary) should be dismissed immediately,” said Rabri Devi, who served as CM between 1997 and 2005.
Accusing CBI of having been influenced by “Nitish Kumar and BJP” while probing the scam, Devi said: “Nitish Kumar has not spoken on the CBI court’s notice. It seems his inner voice is dead. It was alive only in the case of my son Tejaswi Yadav”.