VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Feb. 14: Two and a half decades after the fodder scam worth Rs 950 crore was exposed, the CBI has not been able to trace out a number of accused who now have been declared absconders. Notably, the special CBI court of Ranchi is set to pass the verdict on Tuesday in a fodder scam case RC 47 A/96 2 where a fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 139.35 crore was made from the Doranda treasury of Ranchi during 1995-96. Former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav is the main accused in this case.
Sources in the CBI said that the CBI headquarters regularly sends reminders to the fodder scam unit in Ranchi to trace the absconding accused and they so far have proved a hard nut to crack.
Among absconders is the then M. Phil student of Jawaharlal Nehru University Ranjay Kumar Sinha who could not be traced since 1997 when the CBI had first interrogated him. Sources in the CBI said that other than Ranjay, Phul Singh, Chinta Verma, Ajit Kumar Verma and Umashankar Pandey have been absconding for the past one and half decades.
“Except Phul Singh, the CBI has already announced Rs 50000 cash prize on their head. These absconding accused were suppliers. Immediately I don’t remember the name of all the absconding accused. Some of the accused like Umashankar Pandey seem to be living under a fake identity,” a source familiar with the matter said.
For instance, Phul Singh, a native of Banka district was the owner of M/s Gauri Distributors. He was earlier convicted by the court in some other cases and is accused in as many as five other cases RC21A/96, RC 22A/96, RC 33A/96 and RC 34A/96.
He had absconded in 2014 when he was convicted in RC34A/96 case related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs.1.16 crore from the Godda treasury.
Unconfirmed reports suggested that he settled in Mumbai where he is running a medicine business under a changed identity.
Ranjay is a native of Aurangabad district of Bihar. He used to supply medicines along with his parents Surendra Nath Sinha and Shakuntala Sinha.
Ranjay was booked by the CBI in the cases like RC 41A/96, RC 66A/96 and RC 19A/96. The investigation had revealed that huge amounts were transferred in the bank account of Ranjay during 1990 and 1996 who was one of the beneficiaries.
In 1997, the CBI had first questioned him when he was pursuing M. Phil in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University. He claimed to have no knowledge about his father being part of this scam. He accepted having deposited money in his bank account believing it was the business capital of his father.
“He was an intelligent and sensitive person. When we confronted him with documents he realized that his father misused him. He had radical left orientation and he was so upset that he even told us that he will gun down his father for his crime. He may be innocent but documents clearly reflected his involvement. We once thought to explore legal options to turn him in as an approver. But after that interrogation he became traceless,” said an official who had questioned him.
Asked about the whereabouts of Ranjay, the official said that intelligence inputs faintly hinted Ranjay was teaching at North-Eastern Hill University.
Patna-based supplier couples Ajit Kumar Verma and Chinta Verma who are owners of M/s A. K. Enterprises and M/s A.K. Enterprises respectively have been absconding right from 2012 when they were convicted by the court in RC 55/96 in their absence related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 6.6 crore from the Doranda treasury. Vermas were earlier convicted in several cases and were out on bail when they vanished.
Years back Vermas sold their properties in Patna to a lawyer and moved to Delhi where they are alleged to be living under changed identity. They are wanted in RC 57A/96 and RC 58A/96.
However, the CBI lawyer BMP Singh who is representing the agency in some of the cases said that the court split the case of those accused who have been absconding.
The CBI had lodged 64 cases out of which a decision is pending in only two cases namely Doranda and other is related to illegal withdrawal from Bhagalpur-Banka treasury in which Lalu Prasad is an accused.
