Fodder scam: BJP seeks prosecution of Nitish Kumar

Patna: Buoyed by the conviction of RJD supremo Laloo Prasad in a fodder scam case, BJP today mounted an attack on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and senior JD(U) leader Shivanand Tiwari demanding their prosecution in the same case.BJP senior leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who was the original petitioner in Patna high court in the fodder scam in 1990s, alleged that Kumar and Tiwari had taken money from a fodder scam accused late Shyam Bihari Sinha in the 1990s through his pointsman. “Sinha, an animal husbandry department (AHD) official then and an accused in the fodder scam, had recorded a confessional statement before the police under section 161 of CrPC claiming that he had through one Umesh Singh paid Rs one crore to then Samata Party leader Nitish Kumar in 1994-95 after the latter had demanded some money to defray the expenses of the assembly elections in March 1995,” he told reporters.In the same confessional statement, Sinha had told the police that he had paid Rs 30 lakh to Rs 35 lakh to Shivanand Tiwari, then a Janata Dal leader, through Tripurari Mohan Prasad after Tiwari had demanded Rs 50 lakh from him for not proceeding with filing a petition in high court seeking a probe in the irregularities in the AHD, he said quoting from the annexure of the confessional statement by Sinha. Modi said Sinha and other accused persons in the fodder scam had confessed to paying bribes of lakhs of rupees to Tiwari on several other occasion in the 1990s in lieu of his political benevolence, Modi said.Claiming that the confessional statements by Sinha were sufficient for initiating a CBI probe against Kumar and Tiwari, Modi said he had no reason not to believe that the two JD(U) leaders could not be brought to justice in the fodder scam case.“If the former chief minister Jagannath Mishra could be convicted to four years rigorous imprisonment for writing a recommendation letter to his successor Lalu Prasad for granting two years' extension to Sinha and Prasad himself for five years on the basis of evidences of another convict R.K. Rana, then Kumar and Tiwari should also prosecuted on the similar ground,” Modi said.Stating that he has full faith in the judiciary to bring to justice all accused persons in the fodder scam, the senior BJP leader exuded confidence that CBI will submit a truthful report before Ranchi High Court during the next hearing on November 22 on a PIL filed by a person named Mithilesh Kumar Singh praying for the prosecution of the two JD(U) leaders in the case.Modi claimed that the petitioner had obtained critical documents from CBI by exercising the RTI Act which, he alleged that the central agency was not willing to part with.