VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Feb. 5: As Chief Minister Hemant Soren ordered a probe into the irregularities in the purchase of toffees, T-shirts, and sweets on the State foundation day in 2016 during the Raghubar Das government, the former CM Das accused the government has gone too far to settle political scores against him.
“The proposal for the purchase of toffees and other items was made by the school education department and the same was placed before the cabinet. You can see the timing of the order of the probe. The moment I exposed the corruption of the Hemant Soren government, a probe was ordered in a new case,” Raghubar Das said.
The Hemant Soren government ordered a probe in several cases of alleged scams that took place during the regime of the Raghubar Das government.
In January 2020, an RTI activist had lodged a complaint against Raghubar Das, the then chief secretary Rajbalal Verma for committing a scam in the name of organizing the Momentum Jharkhand event Ranchi in February 2017 to attract investments in Jharkhand.
In July 2020, the government ordered a probe into the alleged Jharkhand Silk, Textile and Handicraft Development Corporation (Jharcraft) blanket scam worth Rs 18.41 crore. The scam allegedly took place between November 2016 and May 2017.
In October 2020, the government ordered the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to probe into alleged irregularities Das and others allegedly committed in the appointment of Meinhardt Singapore Private Limited as a consultant for the Ranchi sewerage-drainage project in 2005.
In July last year, the Hemant Soren government ordered the Anti-Corruption Bureau to investigate the financial irregularities committed during the construction of the new building of the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly and the Jharkhand High Court. Both these buildings were built during the tenure of the Raghubar Das government. The construction cost of the new building of Jharkhand Legislative Assembly was initially reduced from Rs 465 crores to Rs 323.03 crores. But citing Vastu defects, the design was changed and the contract was handed over to the Ram Kripal Construction Company. In this way, the total construction amount increased by Rs 136 crore.
Similarly, the initial estimated amount of the Jharkhand High Court building was Rs 265 crore but as the work progressed the amount also kept increasing. A total of Rs 697 crore was spent on the construction of this new building of Jharkhand High Court.
The toffees and T-shirt scam is the latest one in which the CM ordered a probe a few days back. All these cases were referred to the Anti-Corruption Bureau which is under the control of the CM.
At least two cases namely Meinhardt and toffees and T-shirts were registered on the complaint of Jamshedpur East MLA Saryu Roy who defeated five-time MLA Das in the December 2019 Assembly polls.
In June 2021, Roy had shot off a letter to Chief Minister Hemant Soren demanding a CBI or ACB probe into the matter of the toffee and T-shirt scam. He alleged that the scam was more serious than the Meinhardt scam.
In January this year, Roy even shot off a letter to the chief minister and expressed his displeasure for not taking action in the corruption cases despite glaring evidence.
Roy is particularly upset about the attitude of the current government since, according to him, the investigation of the Meinhardt has made no headway. He said that instead of registering an FIR the government ordered a preliminary inquiry.
“To my knowledge, the probe team submitted a preliminary inquiry report to the government. Defendants were allowed to submit their replies. But the government is not taking any decision. The progress is very slow,” Roy said.
After the probe order, a war of words has just started between Roy and Das. Roy said that Das was trying to create confusion that in the toffee purchase case he got a clean chit. “Raghubar Das should stop blaming the chief minister. The assembly had decided that this matter should be investigated by the ACB,” he said.
Das countered allegations and termed these ill-motivated. “No payment was made to Meinhardt at least during my regime either as a minister or the chief minister. If I correctly remember that Hemant Soren was holding the urban development department in the Arjun Munda-led coalition government when payment was made to Meinhardt. If there was corruption then why did Hemant Soren allow the payment? The present government also ordered an inquiry into road constructions but did not find anything and the matter was closed. I am not afraid of the probe,” said Das.
Well-informed sources aware of the ACB probe said that ACB handles cases where there is documentary evidence of the corruption. Hence, it is not very tough for any probe agency to complete the probe and file the charge sheet in high-profile cases like this.
