‘Ex-Bhagalpur district magistrate signed a cheque for over Rs 12 crore in favour of NGO’

PATNA: Former Bhagalpur district magistrate (DM) Birendra Prasad Yadav had allegedly signed a government cheque for Rs 12,20,15,075 that was deposited into the bank account of NGO Srijan Mahila Vikas Sahyog Samiti, according to the supplementary chargesheet filed before the special CBI court-II against ten persons, including the 2004-batch IAS officer, in the multi-crore scam case on Wednesday.
Birendra, who is now the special secretary in the Backward and Extremely Backward Class Welfare Department, is the first bureaucrat to be chargesheeted in the scam which is related to fraudulent transfer of government money meant for welfare schemes into the Srijan’s Indian Bank account in connivance with the district administration and bank and cooperative department officials in Bhagalpur district between 2004 and 2014.The scam is stated to involve around Rs2000 crore. The NGO was supposed to impart vocational training to the women in Bhagalpur and adjoining districts.
According to the chargesheet, Birendra as the then Bhagalpur DM had signed a cheque of Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) for Rs12,20,15,075 on September 27, 2014 and it was credited into the Srijan’s bank account with Patal Babu Road branch of Indian Bank on September 30. It is also mentioned in the chargesheet that the signature on the cheque matched with that of Birendra in the forensic examination of central forensic science laboratory (CFSL) at New Delhi.
The amount was actually meant to be credited into a government account with Indian Bank branch. It was opened in the DM’s name after his order to close two old accounts with Oriental Bank of Commerce operational from 2008 and Punjab National Bank from 2010. The transferred amount was of Mukhya Mantri Nagar Vikas Yojana and it was kept in OBC.
Birendra had also signed behind the cheque in favour of Indian Bank’s branch manager, though it should have been in favour of Bhagalpur DM. His signature on the back of the cheque was “blank endorsement given to bank officers”. The bank manager wrote above the Birendra’s signature — “please credit to 822726685 with Indian Bank”. The CBI found in its investigation that the nine digit bank account number was in the name of Srijan.
After the cheque was presented to his branch for clearance, OBC manager Jaideo Singh met Birendra requesting him not to transfer the amount. But Birendra ordered him to clear the cheque the same day, the chargesheet stated. The CBI in its charegsheet has mentioned Singh’s statement that there was endorsement behind cheque for clearance in favour of a specific bank account with Indian Bank which was of Srijan’s and the DM knew it.
According to the chargesheet, the Indian Bank account was opened after Birendra’s subordinate Amrendra Kumar Yadav moved a proposal citing reason that both the old branches were far from the nazarat and it was difficult to operate them. The then DM had singed form to open new account with Indian Bank the same day his subordinate moved the proposal.
However, the CBI in its investigation found that all the three banks were located at the same distance from the nazarat and the Indian Bank’s branch was rather located at a crowded place. The CBI also mentioned in charegsheet that there was no need to close two old accounts and the new one was opened with dishonest intentions.