Assets of Bihar CM's kin, former PMCH head, 3 others attached
New Delhi: A day before the voting for the third and final phase of Bihar assembly election, a shocker has come from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as among the five persons, whose immovable and movable properties worth of Rs 3.14 crore has been attached in the 2010 medicine scam of around Rs 15 crore, one Dr Ganesh Prasad Singh is a distant relative of the Bihar CM.
Notably, when the medicine scam of around Rs 15 crore was surfaced in 2010, Dr Ganesh Prasad Singh was the deputy superintendent of Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) and Dr OP Choudhary, whose property has also been attached, was the superintendent of the PMCH.
As per ED officials, 15 people have been charge-sheeted, including Choudhary and Dr Ganesh Prasad Singh, in the multi-crore medicine scam and properties have been attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The other three persons whose properties have been attached are Dr Binod Kumar Singh, Amit Dhandhania and Bimal Dalmia. Dhandhania and Dalmia are the proprietors of Swastik Enterprises.
Among the properties that have been seized by the ED include nine plots and flats situated in Patna, Ghaziabad, Pune and Bangalore which is worth of Rs 2.60 crore. Besides, three four-wheelers worth of Rs 25.86 lakh and Rs 28.09 lakh cash deposited in different bank accounts have also been seized. A case of money laundering against Choudhary and 14 others under the provisions of PMLA-2002 was registered by the ED in 2013.
During the probe, it came to light that the PMCH officials flouted procurement norms and purchased chemical, equipment and machines during the period 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 from the local vendors/commission agents.
As per ED officials, the then superintendent Choudhary, the then deputy superintendent Ganesh Prasad and others, in connivance with the suppliers, had procured medicines, chemical reagent, equipment at the higher rate and the procured quantity was also much higher than the required amount resulting in a huge loss of the government revenue.
In the FIR, the then PMCH superintendent Choudhary, Satyam Distributors' proprietor Yogendra Kumar, Medi Devices proprietors Chandan Kumar and Asim Kumar and several others have been named as accused.
Reportedly, BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi had also demanded a CBI probe into the matter in 2014, after the JDU had snapped its ties with BJP in June 2013.
