By IANS,
Patna : The opposition parties in Bihar called for the resignation of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Friday, a day after Patna High Court ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe against him into alleged financial irregularities of Rs.11,412 crore.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), the Congress and the Left parties demanded the resignation of Nitish Kumar, who is the main accused in the alleged irregularities. This comes ahead of the forthcoming state assembly polls in October-November this year.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad said Nitish Kumar should resign as he was no more a leader with clean image. “The court ordering for a CBI probe against Nitish Kumar was enough for him to resign,” Lalu Prasad said.
LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan echoed on the same lines.
“It was the biggest scam in Bihar in which the chief minister was involved. Nitish Kumar should resign and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi should be dismissed,” Congress spokesperson Prem Chand Mishra told IANS.
The Left parties, including the CPI, the CPI-M and the CPI-ML, said they would take the issue to people’s court.
Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi refused to comment on the issue.
On Thursday, a division bench of Chief Justice R.M. Doshit and Justice S.K. Katariyar handed over the probe to the CBI. The court observed that it was necessary to hand over the probe as the accused in the case are the chief minister, the deputy chief minister and 45 others, including ministers and top officials.
Petitioner Arvind Kumar pointed to financial irregularities in the development funds during 2002-2008 in Bihar.
He said the report of the accountant general (AG) of Bihar formed the basis of his complaint. In the report, the AG mentioned the financial irregularities in various funds meant for the development in the state.
The AG, in his report, had mentioned that the detailed bills to the tune of Rs.1,100 crore were not available and the state government could not provide the same to the AG for calculation and assessment.
The court has fixed July 26 as next hearing date in the case.
Earlier this week, a complaint was filed by Arwal district-based social activist Mohan Kumar in the special vigilance court of Patna, in which Nitish Kumar, Modi and 45 others have been accused of financial irregularities involving Rs.11,412 crore.