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I-T department raids senior Bihar minister, drug officials, suppliers

Soroor Ahmed in Patna

Now it is Health Minister Mahavir Prasad who is facing the music in Bihar. The minister's official residence and 11 other premises owned by him in the state were raided today, not by sleuths of the Central Bureau of Investigation but by officers of the income-tax department. The residences of four drug officials and three pharmaceutical suppliers in Patna and other places were also raided.

The raids recovered Rs 8.2 million in cash, besides a hundi of Rs 16 million and jewellery, share certificates and fixed deposits worth a few millions. The raids were continuing till late in the evening.

According to the income-tax department's director (investigation), Jagdish Jha, Rs 300,000 in cash were found in the minister's house. But the amount seized was Rs 175,000. Besides, the officers found several documents confirming that the minister and his kin own 10 flats in Tulsi Apartment of Patna's posh Pataliputra Colony. Besides, they found out about two other houses, in Patparganj, New Delhi, and Calcutta.

But the largest amount of cash, Rs 3.8 million, was recovered from the premises of O P Dalmia, a pharmaceutical supplier. The other two suppliers whose premises were raided were B L Dalmia and S K Dalmia.

The hundi worth Rs 16 million was recovered from one of them, which suggests that he had advanced a loan for that amount. Officials in the income-tax department's office in Patna did not have details.

Rs 1.8 million in cash were also seized from the residence of Drug Inspector Hemant Kumar Sinha. Huge amounts of cash and documents were recovered from the residences of Assistant Drug Controller Anant Kumar Agrawal, Regional Licensing Authority Jagjit Singh, and Drug Controller Ramesh Chandra Jha.

The income-tax officers simultaneously conducted a special survey at five different places in the state capital.

Minister Prasad was not at his residence when the raid took place. He was reportedly in Darbhanga district. A rumour that the minister's ancestral house in Ghanshyampur village of Madhubani district had also been raided did the rounds for a while.

Mahavir Prasad is among the oldest ministers in the Cabinet of Rashtriya Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav's wife, Chief Minister Rabri Devi. He became a minister for the first time in 1968 in the Samyukt Vidhayak Dal ministry that was ruling Bihar then. He returned to power with the Janata Party in 1977. He was believed to be very close to the late chief minister and veteran Socialist politician Karpoori Thakur. He has been a minister in the RJD governments in the state since 1990.

During Yadav's first term as chief minister (1990-95), Prasad, as the industry ministry, was rated dissident number one. But after Yadav's thumping win in the 1995 assembly election, he bought peace and gave up the idea of trying to become chief minister of the state.

The income-tax raid has come as another blow to the Rabri Devi government. On November 5, the CBI had raided the official premises of Road Construction Minister Ilyas Hussain and arrested him. Hussain was later sacked.

Though Mahavir Prasad does not have a very comfortable relationship with Laloo Prasad or Rabri Devi, RJD leaders believe the raids are being carried out with the assembly election, due in February 2000, in mind.

Meanwhile, Sushil Kumar Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party politician and leader of the Opposition in Bihar assembly, has demanded that Prasad be dropped and all four drug officials be suspended.

But Rabri Devi is unlikely to sack Prasad just yet. Hussain was sacked only after he was arrested. Earlier, though his premises had been raided and 'incriminating' documents seized, Hussain continued to be a member of the Cabinet.

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