Fodder scam: Nitish Kumar also under scanner

Patna, Oct 1: After RJD chief

, will JD(U) leader and the current chief minister of

,

, will also face consequences?

According to reports, the Jharkhand High Court has on September 20 sought a counter-affidavit from the CBI by November 22 on why the names of Kumar and Shivanand Tiwari, also of the JD(U) were not included in the name of the accused in the Rs 900-crore fodder scam of the mid-1990s.

The court said this after a Patna-based social activist, Mithilesh Singh, filed a RTI petition on the CBI's stand on both Kumar and Tiwari, a Rajya Sabha MP, and the investigative agency reportedly said that it has evidence against both the JD(U) leaders.

The court has asked the CBI to explain its position on Nitish Kumar by Nov 22

Surprisingly, the CBI court had twice quashed the case filed by Singh in 2009. He finally moved the Jharkhand High Court. It has been alleged that while Tiwari had received Rs 30-35 lakh from Shyam Bihari Sinha, the kingpin of the scam, Kumar got Rs 1.40 crore for election expenditure. Kumar was in the Samata Party then.

Umesh Singh, a vigilance department employee was used as the means to reach the money to the JD(U) leaders and the former admitted it during the CBI interrogation in 1996. Yet, both Tiwari and Kumar were given clean chits.

The high court said that both Tiwari and Kumar could have been included in the list of the accused once the CBI came to know about the money transfer.

OneIndia News