Rs 100 crore transferred to realty firm from Jharkhand’s midday meal account

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case in connection to illegal transfer of Rs 100 crore from Jharkhand government account for midday meal programme to a private builder.

According to CBI officials, the money was transferred from Jharkhand government account for the midday meal in State Bank of India.

CBI sleuths on Friday had carried out raids in the office of the accused and private firm Bhanu Construction in connection to the illegal transfer.

The CBI has booked the accused under charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The investigative agency has registered an FIR against the company, its partner Suresh Kumar, Sanjay Kumar Tiwari and Ajay Oraon, former deputy manager of State Bank of India (SB)I’s Hatia branch.

The FIR was registered on the complaint of a State Bank of India officer. The bank officer has alleged that Oran, then business development department  deputy manager, ‘dishonestly and by abusing his official position’ transferred over Rs 100 crore from the account of Rajya Madhyan Bhojan Pradhikaran to Bhanu construction.  

Oraon has been suspended by the company.

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According to the FIR lodged by SBI officer, “On August 05, 2017, State Bank of India, Hatia Branch received six debit advices from the Government of Jharkhand for transfer of Rs. 120.31 crore from their saving bank account to multiple accounts maintained with different banks including State Bank of India."

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The SBI officer in the FIR alleged that Rs 100.01 crore was to be transferred to other bank accounts while Rs 20.29 was transferred to SBI account.

"Due to failure in uploading Rs. 100.01 crore got returned to the office. Oraon instead of crediting the amount to Jharkhand Rajya Madhyan Bhojan Pradhikaran account, he transferred the amount to the current account of Bhanu construction,” the officer alleged in the FIR.

The FIR also states that SBI managed to recover 76.29 crore on November 20, 2017 from various accounts with different banks.