Hazaribag: Expanding its ongoing probe into Hazaribag treasury scam case, the district administration has now issued a notice to a local BJP worker for allegedly selling ‘khas mahal’ land to one of the scam accused without following govt rules.Notably, the Hazaribag administration on April 10 said Rs 28 crore had been withdrawn from the treasury on the pretext of disbursing salaries and other emoluments. A day later, the authorities had detected fraudulent transactions to the tune of Rs 15.41 crore. Five persons have been arrested in this connection so far. They are Shambhu Kumar, and two other police constables — Rajnish Singh alias Pankaj and Dhirendra Singh.
Shambhu’s wife and one more woman were also arrested.Probe has revealed that the saffron party worker, Shiv Prasad Mehta, acted as a middleman and helped a person sell off the land to Shambhu without following govt rules. So, the administration on Wednesday night served him a notice. Additional collector Santosh Singh, who is heading the probe team, confirmed to TOI about the development.Officials said the BJP leader has been directed to appear before the authorities for his response by April 17, failing which legal action will be initiated.
The notice pertains to a disputed multi-storey structure belonging to Shambhu allegedly built in violation of land and building norms. Officials suspect that the property transaction and construction may have links to the financial irregularities.An investigating officer on anonymity told TOI that investigation has revealed that arrested accused Pankaj allegedly created at least nine proxy or fake IDs to open bank accounts in the names of relatives and acquaintances.
These accounts were then used to route govt funds through layered transactions to avoid detection.The funds siphoned off from the treasury were distributed across multiple accounts, pointing to a well-planned operation with possible involvement of more individuals.During scrutiny of bank details, investigators found transactions linked to accounts associated with Pankaj’s relative, Saurabh.About Shambhu, they admitted that so far the probe confirmed he built a luxurious house in Gaya using illicit earnings and led a lavish lifestyle. “We are probing each and every facts related to Shambhu’s lifestyle,” they added.
