Rashtriya Janata Dal President Lalu Prasad Yadav on Wednesday said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was trying to cover up the alleged Rs 700-crore fund transfer scam with the “help of his hand-picked officials in the Special Investigation Team”, reported PTI.

Yadav said the Comptroller and Auditor-General had highlighted “statutory irregularities” in the functioning of the NGO, the Srijan Mahila Sahyog Samiti, in Bhagalpur in its 2008 report. “Why was the matter suppressed?” he asked, according to ANI. “It had come to the knowledge of the Economic Offences Unit of the state police in 2013, but nothing happened. They [SIT officials] are either destroying evidence or hiding them from public view,” he told reporters.

He said the state government headed by Nitish Kumar had completely “glossed over” the report. “I want to know what happened to the report, when in 2013 the crime branch investigated the whole matter,” he said.

He also demanded the resignation of Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi to ensure an impartial investigation into the matter. The RJD chief alleged Nitish Kumar was destroying the evidence to save himself from the scam. Talking about key accused Mahesh Mandal’s death, Lalu alleged that “like the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh, people are being mysteriously killed in connection with the NGO scandal”.

Srijan Mahila Sahyog Samiti scam

The alleged swindling began in 2006. Preliminary investigation had found that money meant to acquire land under the Mukhya Mantri Nagar Vikas Yojna was transferred under different names to the accounts of Bhagalpur-based cooperative society Srijan Mahila Vikas Sahyog Samiti Limited. The money was transferred to the Bank of Baroda and Indian Bank, where the government, too, had accounts. The process continued till the death of Srijan Founder-Secretary Manorama Devi in February.

Mandal, who died on Monday, was a clerk at the Welfare Department. He was arrested on August 13 in connection with the scam. His statements had led to the arrest of a few others, and investigators had hoped he would continue to be useful.

The police had claimed Mandal was the link that connected the bank, government and Srijan, and that he had admitted to receiving Rs 3 crore as commission from Srijan over 15 years, reported The Indian Express.

The police had said that the organisation used to organise training and employment programmes for women in different blocks in Bhagalpur. It also ran a cooperative bank, and had applied to the Reserve Bank of India for a license.

So far, the government has filed 10 FIRs and arrested 12 people in the case. The Nitish Kumar-led Bihar administration has also ordered an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the alleged scam.