Story Brunch
Srijan Scam of Bihar- A story
A poor widow in Bhagalpur, a small town of Bihar started doing tailoring, sewing, stitching clothes to make her both ends meet,and for the education of her children. Gradually,few more women got attached to her initiative and the NGO- Srijan was born- for empowerment of poor woman.
A small NGO,in a small town. Gradually this NGO started making and selling pickles,papad etc and became a big brand locally. The woman who started all this- Manorama Devi– made some good contacts during the expansion of the NGO,mainly with politicians and bureaucrats. Funding of the NGO started on large scale ,specially during first term of Nitish Kumar in Bihar. NGO existed since 2003- last phase of the Lalu rule .
Central govt sends funds to District administration for development- to DRDA etc bodies,which in turn distribute/transfer funds to development activities through select NGO accounts in banks.
How was the scam being executed?
Generally the funds with district administrion,DRDA accounts etc are in hundreds of crores sometimes. The funds from these accounts were illegally transferred to Srijan NGO accounts in banks. Indian Bank and Bank of Baroda had the accounts of NGO in this town. So the money was illegally transferred to the NGO account,and the NGO used to withdraw this amount and distribute it among select few people who would use it for either lending it on interest to businessmen in town,or make apartments,open showrooms etc. So,on paper ,officially the money was with the district administration. But in reality,the money was being used by the Nexus related to Srijan NGO. Few bank employees were part of this nexus.They used to manipulate passbooks ,false printing ,false updating of accounts with printers at home,not at banks. So this is how money which should have been in account was being circulated but it also showed in passbooks falsely.
But why the scam could not be unearthed for long?
Because whenever a genuine check for some development/funding etc was issued by district administration, someone from district admin office would inform the NGO head Manorma devi about the cheque. So,in case a cheque of 50 lakhs was issued,someone would call Manorma devi that the account should have a minimum balance of 50 lakhs,and she would get the money deposited . She had all the planning, strategy, the notebooks of her borrowers ,and things were functioning smoothly for more than one and a half decade.
How was the scam exposed?
Manorma devi died in Feb 2017.The accounts were empty,and district admin issued a cheque of 10 lakhs. Information was sent to concerned people to deposit 10 lakhs immediately,before the cheque would reach the bank the next day. None of the borrowers was ready to arrange the money, resulting in an internal strife in the nexus.The cheque bounced next day. A cheque of 10 lakhs bounced in an account which should have atleast crores if not hundreds of crores rupees at a time. And the scam burst.
2003-2017- period of scam.
1500-2000+ crores worth scam- now this may look small in comparison to big scams where we hear amount in lakhs of crores . Not the case,because the big scams are generally spread over a whole state,multiple states or at national level. This scam happened in just 2-3 districts,mainly one district Bhagalpur. So it was a mammoth scam. SIT was formed ,it was RJD-JDU govt at that time,and the case was progressing quite well.Few arrests were made. After uproar the case was given to CBI. Meanwhile the govt changed and Nitish Kumar switched to NDA fold. The case could hardly progress after that,many accused were not even charge sheeted despite SIT having credible evidence, including phone call recordings.
That was the scam,but imagine the malice in the system. Hundreds of crores of rupees was being siphoned from govt accounts ,and the district magistrates couldn’t catch the scam during those 10-15 years !!! That too in the era of Internet Banking,Core banking. About 8 DMs took the charge of the town during that phase. None could find the scam? Is it believable? One of the arrests was of PA to DM office.Later he joined back as charge sheet was not filed by CBI. Few who had run away when the scam was burst have returned to the town and they are running their business as usual,as if there is no fear of law. Few are still in jail,specially the bank employees- the district admin tried to pass the blame solely to banks.
One of the worst blatant scams involving so many bureaucrats,politicians, bank employees is yet to see any conclusion in the court of justice.
