PATNA: A day after the new Nitish Kumar government in Bihar faced flak over the induction in the cabinet of Kartikeya Kumar, who faces arrest in a kidnapping case, it’s facing the heat of the Opposition again for alleged involvement of RJD MLA Sudhakar Singh, who was allotted the agriculture portfolio, in the rice mill scam of 2013-14.
Sudhakar, who is the MLA from Ramgarh in Kaimur district, is the son of RJD state chief Jagadanand Singh, who has earlier served as the irrigation minister in the Lalu-Rabri cabinet. An FIR was filed against him during the Nitish-led NDA government over alleged embezzlement of rice worth Rs 11.5 crore in 2013. He was charged with not returning rice to the government against paddy grains supplied to his rice mills as per the agreement between the government and rice mill owners.
Sudhakar, however, termed the allegation baseless, saying the delay in procuring rice from mills caused losses to mill owners, farmers and also the government. “It was not a scam but policy failure and lack of infrastructure that led to revenue loss,” Sudhakar said.
The controversy follows the uproar that erupted on Wednesday over an arrest warrant issued against state Law Minister Kartikeya Kumar at Bihta police station in Patna district in 2016 in a kidnapping case. The warrant was pending at Mokama police station, from where Kartikeya hails.
The case was related to an attempt to abduct realtor Rajiv Ranjan Singh. Kartikeya was supposed to depose before Danapur court on Aug. 16 but he instead took oath of office after being inducted in the council of ministers.
The induction of two ‘tainted’ RJD legislators as ministers has provided the Opposition an opportunity to attack the mahagathbandhan government. Ex-minister Samrat Choudhary said almost 80 per cent of the ministers in the government have criminal records or face corruption charges. “What sort of government is this, with 82% tainted ministers?,” he said, citing a report by Association of Democratic Reforms released this week.