A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Patna on Monday declared former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer K P Ramaiah and two others as absconders after their continued absence in a multi-crore scam related to alleged siphoning of government funds by the Srijan Mahila Vikas Sahyog Samiti (SMVSS).
The CBI has not been able to trace Ramaiah, SMVSS secretary Rajni Priya Kumar and her husband Amit Kumar even five years after registration of the case against them.
The CBI court on August 19, 2022 had issued non-bailable arrest warrant against nine people in the case including these three.
A 1986-batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre, Ramaiah has served as the district magistrate (DM) of Bhagalpur, principal secretary of scheduled castes/tribe welfare department and secretary of Mahadalit Commission. He joined the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) in 2014 and unsuccessfully contested Lok Sabha election from Sasaram constituency the same year.
The CBI court had earlier ordered investigators to start the process of their proclamation and attachment of properties, as per the law.
The federal agency on Monday submitted two separate reports and one of them said it has attached the 13 properties of Kumar and his wife. But, in Ramaiah’s case, the investigation officer (IO) of the case mentioned in his report that the former IAS officer has transferred his properties to the name of his wife Jaya Bharti and son K S Shivkant.
During the hearing, the investigating officer (IO) of the federal investigation agency said Ramaiah’s non-bailable warrants could not be served. The court directed the CBI inspector general (IG) to investigate the role of IO and superintendent of police (SP) in Ramaiah’s matter.
On June 28, 2020 the CBI filed the charge sheet in the case including SMVSS’s founder secretary Manorma Devi (late), her son Amit Kumar and his wife Rajini Priya, SMVSS manager Sarita Jha, director Subha Laxmi Jha, besides the then chief managers, then branch managers and other officials of the Bank of Baroda and the Indian Bank.
Of the 27 accused in this case, 12 were lodged in Beur jail, seven of them got regular bail while the Patna high court stayed the arrest of four accused.
The Bihar police have already issued lookout notices against Priya and her husband to ensure that they do not leave the country.
The hearing of the case has been adjourned till further order.
