PATNA: The
Patna high court
on Friday rejected the anticipatory bail petition of retired
IAS officer
KP Ramaiah for his alleged involvement in the embezzlement of more than Rs 5 crore of central government funds in the
Bihar Mahadalit Vikas
Mission scam.
The anticipatory bail was rejected by the bench of Justice Rakesh Kumar looking at the serious nature of allegation and the high-level post held by the retired officer.
Ramaiah, even after being accused in the scam, continues to be the member of Bihar Land Tribunal.
Advocate Arvind Kumar, who appeared on behalf of the vigilance investigation bureau before the court, said Ramaiah was appointed CEO of the Mission on January 21, 2014 and in between he had also applied for retirement under VRS.
“As soon as he got to know that application was approved by government, Raju wrongly issued cheque of Rs 2.24 crore and Rs 24.99 lakh to two different private firms who were responsible imparting training and conducting exams for the mahadalit youths. The cheques were issued on February 26 while Ramaiah retired just after two days,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ramaiah’s counsel Sandeep Kumar, assisted by Samrendra Kumar Jha, submitted before the court that Ramaiah had issued the cheques according to rules and had no role in the embezzlement as the scheme had started way back in 2011.
The scam is related to embezzlement of at least Rs 5.01 crore central government funds for imparting training of MS Office, Tally, spoken English and other courses to mahadalit youths under Dashrath Manjhi Skill Development Scheme which was run by Bihar Mahadalit Vikash Mission. The scam took place between year 2010 and 2016.
The vigilance investigation had lodged an FIR against Ramaiah, retired IAS officer Ramashish Paswan, the then Mission’s chief executive officer (CEO) SM Raju, Parmar Ravimanu Bhai and six other officials on October 23 last year. Raju and Parmar are also IAS officers. Raju is also accused in SC-ST scholarship scam.