Muzaffarpur: A complaint has been
filed in a vigilance court here charging Bihar Chief Minister
Nitish Kumar and 26 others with "misappropriating public
money" towards purchase of medicines for jails in the state.
Senior lawyer Sudhir Kumar Ojha filed the complaint
yesterday after which the special vigilance judge S N Pandey
fixed January 21 as the next date for hearing.
The case has been filed under sections 7, 8, 11, 12 13
(I) and 13 (II) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and
sections 420, 467 and 468 of the Indian Penal Code.
In the complaint, Ojha has alleged that prison
department officials had purchased medicines for prisoners in
different jails of north Bihar at rates much higher than the
market price.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who also holds the
additional portfolio of the state Home (prison) Department
cannot escape the responsibility, he said.
He further charged that the medicines were purchased
from pharmaceutical firms which had ceased its production
during the period when the purchases were allegedly made.
The names of IG (prisons), 13 Jail Superintendents,
besides officials of the Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals
and Sada Shiv Pharma also figured in the complaint.
PTI
