Fodder scam: Bihar BJP demands Nitish Kumar's prosecution

Patna: Buoyed by the conviction of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad in a fodder scam case, the BJP today mounted an attack on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and senior JD(U) leader Shivanand Tiwari demanding their prosecution in the same case. BJP senior leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who was the original petitioner in Patna high court in the fodder scam in 1990s, alleged that Kumar and Tiwari had taken money from a fodder scam accused late Shyam Bihari Sinha in the 1990s through his pointsman. [caption id=“attachment_1154957” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Nitish Kumar. PTI[/caption] “Sinha, an animal husbandry department (AHD) official then and an accused in the fodder scam, had recorded a confessional statement before the police under section 161 of CrPC claiming that he had through one Umesh Singh paid Rs one crore to then Samata Party leader Nitish Kumar in 1994-95 after the latter had demanded some money to defray the expenses of the assembly elections in March 1995,” he told reporters. In the same confessional statement, Sinha had told the police that he had paid Rs 30 lakh to Rs 35 lakh to Shivanand Tiwari, then a Janata Dal leader, through Tripurari Mohan Prasad after Tiwari had demanded Rs 50 lakh from him for not proceeding with filing a petition in high court seeking a probe in the irregularities in the AHD, he said quoting from the annexure of the confessional statement by Sinha. Modi said Sinha and other accused persons in the fodder scam had confessed to paying bribes of lakhs of rupees to Tiwari on several other occasion in the 1990s in lieu of his political benevolence, Modi said. PTI