Srijan scam: Role of 5 ex-officers under lens

New Delhi: The role of at least five former district welfare officers (DWOs) of Bhagalpur and Saharsa districts are under the scanner of the CBI as part of the agency’s probe pertaining to the multi-crore Srijan scam in Bihar. The state police, which earlier investigated the case, had last month arrested a suspended DWO of Bhagalpur, Arun Kumar, in connection with the case.

“Investigation by the agency has revealed that certain DWOs in two districts — Bhagalpur and Saharsa — allegedly played crucial role in diverting government funds to the accounts of Srijan Mahila Vikash Sahyog Samiti Limited (an NGO). Role of at least five former DWOs are being probed in this regard,” sources said. The agency will soon call them for questioning, they added.

The CBI recently registered 10 FIRs to probe the Srijan scam in which government funds worth about Rs 1,000 crore were allegedly diverted to the accounts of a non-government organisation. The agency booked Bhagalpur based-NGO Srijan Mahila Vikas Samiti in connection with the case. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar had on August 18 recommended the CBI to probe into the Srijan scam, after RJD chief Lalu Prasad accused him of “murdering democracy” in Bihar. The RJD chief has been on the offe-nsive against Mr Kumar and deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi over the Srijan scam.

“Srijan is accused of em-bezzling crores of money from different accounts of district administration with the alleged connivance of government officials,” sources added.