Will not rest till FIRs lodged against Nitish, Sushil: Lalu

Patna : RJD chief Lalu Prasad today said he will not rest till FIRs are lodged against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi in the alleged Srijan scam. Attacking the two leaders, he alleged that that the scam was in the knowledge of both of them.

“We will take the matter to the logical conclusion. We will not rest unless FIRs are lodged against Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi in the scam,” Prasad said, and questined why the two have not been booked already in the case. Referring to Nitish Kumar’s “suicidal street play” remark, Prasad said he reckoned that it was a “warning” but he will continue his fight to expose those involved in the scam.

“It was a suicidal street play (atmaghati nukkad-natak) which will cost him (Prasad) heavily,” Kumar had told reporters while commenting on the public meeting of the RJD chief and his son Tejashwi at Bhagalpur yesterday.
Refuting Kumar’s claim that he first detected the scam after an incident of cheque bouncing surfaced on August 7 this year, Prasad today alleged that cheques bounced several times between July 10 to July 29, 2017.

“Why did Nitish Kumar hide the issue of cheque bouncing for 27 days,” said Prasad who was accompanied by his son and former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and senior party leaders Jagdanand Singh and Shivanand Tiwari during the press meet. “Why has he not come out with a public explanation so far, whereas Kumar used to tell Tejashwi to explain in public the charges levelled against him,” Prasad said.

He claimed that the 2008 CAG report clearly stated about the alleged scam related to irregularities in allocation of fund to NGO Srijan, but Kumar chose to remain silent instead of taking steps to stop the scam. Why did Nitish Kumar make “so many frequent visits to Delhi between July 10 and July 26”, Prasad asked, and claimed that that the CM was told that if he breaks the grand alliance, nothing would happen to him.

The former CM said that Kumar was “giving him lessons on maintaining dignity as if he was his headmaster”. Prasad said that he has a master’s degree in political science whereas Nitish Kumar has done engineering. The JD(U) says that RJD uses unparliamentary language but the fact is that JD(U) spokespersons “have used unparliamentary language against me and senior party leaders Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Jagdanand Singh, Shivanand Tiwari on umpteen occasions,” he alleged.

Tejashwi Yadav, leader of opposition in Bihar Assembly, said the state government does not want that opposition to expose it on the scam issue. He alleged that a fair probe is not being held in the Srijan scam by the CBI “which is under pressure”. He said that his party would move the Supreme Court seeking monitoring of the probe. Tejashwi also asked Nitish Kumar as to “what happened to his commitment of finding out the culprits of the scam even from patal (from beneath the ground)”.

The former deputy CM also accused Nitish Kumar of being “Bhishm Pitamah” of moral corruption, “besides indulging in political corruption by betraying the mandate given to the grand alliance”.