Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, May 26
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday raided 18 places in different parts of the country to probe the irregularities in purchase of sports materials for the 34th National games held in Jharkhand in January, 2011.
CBI searched residential and official premises of the working president of the Jharkhand Pradesh Congress committee, Bandhu Tirkey,who was education minister in 2011. Office of the Jharkhand Olympic association at Ranchi and residential premises of its secretary at Bokaro and Patna were also searched. CBI officials searched two places in Noida and one in New Delhi.
Tirkey who was disqualified as MLA following his conviction in the scam that was earlier investigated and prosecuted by the Anti-Corruption Bureau.
Election commission of India has notified by-election of Mandar constituency next month as the seat had fallen vacant following Bandhu’s conviction.
Among the accused named in the case are senior advocate and former MP from Jharkhand R K Anand, former director of sports P C Mishra, Madhusudan Pathak and Vipin Kumar Singh, officers of the organising committee of the National Games events held at Ranchi, Bokaro, Dhanbad, Jamshedpur and Maithan in Jharkhand.
Last month, Jharkhand High Court had ordered CBI probe into the scam.
Meanwhile, CBI has recovered ‘incriminating’ documents in connection with the scam from the residence of Bandhu, who is reported to be out of station when the team conducted the raids at his houses that lasted for over nine hours.
Initial reports have suggested financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 28.34 crore were committed in the purchase of sports materials without calling tenders.
