Jharkhand HC directive causes a flutter

patna: the recent directive of the jharkhand high court to the cbi to probe the alleged involvement of the additional director general of the vigilance bureau of the bihar government, d p ojha, in the multi-crore fodder scam has caused a flutter among serving and retired bureaucrats and many high-ranking politicians, including some belonging to the nda.cbi additional director (east) u n biswas has assured the court that he would refer to the investigating agency director the matter regarding ojha, which has been pending for some time for want of permission to prosecute him. investigation into ojha's role is expected to reveal more inside information about the scam as also the role of many other officials and senior politicians, who were either allegedly involved in or showed indifference to the fraudulent withdrawal of heavy amounts by the animal husbandry department (ahd) mafia. cbi sources said the role of many senior officials and politicians is also expected to be further questioned in the light of the jharkhand high court directive as the agency may again step up its investigation to pin them down though they were let off after being quizzed by it during the last five years. the cbi reportedly quizzed many of the senior officials and politicians who had remained silent over the flourishing scam, but it could not arrive at any definite conclusion regarding their involvement in the scam for want of prima facie evidence. embezzlement, amounting to funds worth over rs 1,100 crore, went on for years, and none of the senior officials manning important departments could detect it. the matter became hot when the then chaibasa deputy commissioner, amit khare, reported to the state finance department about the massive withdrawal of funds from treasuries and the then finance commissioner, v s dubey, issued a directive for special vigil on treasuries following a serious financial crunch. dubey came to know about the excess withdrawal only after the state exchequer started depleting. after the scam came to light and the inquiry was handed over to the cbi, the agency questioned many senior officials, including ojha, the then director general of the vigilance bureau and now governor of chhattisgarh, d n sahay, the then principal secretary to chief minister and now chief secretary of the bihar government, mukund prasad, the then finance commissioner sachchidanand sinha (now retired), another former director general of the vigilance bureau, gajendra narayan, and the then chief secretary of the bihar government, a k basak, for detailed information regarding the scam. the vigilance bureau inquiry into the irregularities in fund withdrawal was stopped midway reportedly on the directive of sahay on the ground that the matter was being looked into by the public accounts committee of the bihar legislature. at that time ojha was inspector general in the vigilance bureau. even mukund prasad, who was the principal secretary to the cm who okayed the file after he (mukund) had given his note, had reportedly never pointed out anything going wrong in the ahd. laloo prasad yadav had himself told the cbi officials at the time of his questioning that his officials tez nahi hain; woh log bhusa khaate hain, isliye mand buddhi hain (are not intelligent; they eat husk and that's why they are dull). apart from this, the role of two ruling rjd mps and three union ministers belonging to the nda camp had also reportedly been doubted by the cbi. although the cbi reportedly did not check the veracity of the information regarding their alleged involvement after their intense questioning a few years ago following the statement of a key ahd official before judicial magistrate, the issue continues to haunt the official circles as also the of-repeated allegation of laloo that the cbi was harassing him and that many senior officials and politicians, who had also been involved in the scam as they had kept the then jd government in the dark for years regarding the surreptitious activities of the ahd mafia for huge excess withdrawal of funds in successive years, were let off for reasons best known to the investigating agency. senior officials of the income-tax (i-t) department, including a deputy commissioner-rank officer, rajneesh kumar, who were questioned by the cbi for allowing the unaccounted income of the ahd mafia to go without any assessment, have also reportedly become apprehensive following the jharkhand high court directive, i-t sources said.