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Cachar Zilla Parishad
The Cachar Zilla Parishad is a classic example of this. The opposition, youth and student organizations call it a ‘cockpit of corruption’. At the centre-stage of the greatest ever scam unearthed in February this year was the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Banhishikha Dutta.
It was a case of ‘open loot’ of development funds and took little time to become public. Banhishikha Dutta on the day of her retirement on February 28th withdrew Rs 87.72 lakh. The huge amount was withdrawn through 18 self cheques in her favour and 12 cheques in the name of junior engineer Nitu Das from the Sonai Road branch of Union Bank.
Even after her retirement, Dutta withdrew another amount of `60 lakh on March 1st through three cheques and another Rs 20 lakh through one cheque on March 4th. These cheques bear Dutta’s signature and were drawn from the same branch of Union Bank. The total amount withdrawn by her on the day of retirement and afterwards amounted to Rs 1 crore, 67 lakh and 72 thousand, using 34 cheques, 21 of them being self cheques. Quite mysteriously, on March 8th, Rs 36 lakh was deposited in the ZPC account of Union Bank and the identity of the depositor was kept a secret. The actions of Banhishikha Dutta raised many intriguing questions, no doubt, but it was clear that a powerful political lobby was behind her.
With the leak of the scam and the trouble she sensed, Banhishikha Dutta left for Kolkata along with all the members of her family. But, it was ultimately exposed in the media and the district administration was forced to initiate an inquiry into the matter in view of the public outrage and the demand of the opposition. The investigation first conducted by Debashis Chakraborty, ADC, and then by S K Das who is also an ADC found prima facie evidence of involvement of Dutta and five others who included Rejjad Ahmed Barbhuiya, accountant, Panna Das, GP secretary, Nitu Kumar Das, JE, D Goswami, SE and Deep Narayan Kurmi a 4th grade employee in the scam. Police filed a charge sheet against her U/S 120 (B)/406/409/468/417 IPC. She approached the CJM Court at Silchar which refused to grant her bail after which she then applied for anticipatory bail from Gauhati High Court which too was rejected
The Cachar police under scanner for its questionable role in the matter adopted a dilatory process to arrest her though the co accused Rejjad Ahmad Barbhuyan, accountant, and Panna Das, GP secretary were arrested who however got bail from Gauhati High Court. Now, the responsible citizens are asking - Why was Dutta, the prime accused, not arrested after her bail petition was rejected by CJM and Gauhati High Court? She was rather given a long rope to walk and move the Supreme Court for bail which was granted and a stay order was placed on her arrest which would now be heard on August 5th.
In the meantime, a team of Cachar police led by Dhruba Bora, ASP (Border), investigation officer and TSI, Mukut Kakoti, sub Inspector, Esara Rongmei, and constable, Minu Barman, flew to Kolkata and arrested Banhishikha Dutta from her New Town flat in coordination with the local police. Wonder of wonders, her lawyers appeared on the scene. They showed Bora the order of the Supreme Court which said she should not surrender before police. But, there was nothing in the order that prevented police from arresting her. She was arrested and as demanded by law she was produced before the CJM Court at Barasat on July 9th. Her lawyers showed their wits in seeking relief for her on the ground that she was ‘medically unfit’ and also on the strength of the Supreme Court stay order. She was released on PR bond of `5000 only and the 7 day transit remand of Cachar police was rejected. In the midst of adverse criticism, SP of Cachar, Diganta Bora said, “Our police did all that had to be done to arrest her. But, what could we do if the Barasat Court granted bail to her?”
| Even after her retirement,Dutta withdrew another amount of Rs 60 lakh on March 1st through three cheques and another Rs 20 lakh through one cheque on March 4th. |
The failure of Cachar police to arrest Banhishikha Dutta and bring her back to Silchar has raised many questions in legal circles. Pradip Dutta Roy, a noted lawyer, said the charge under section 120 B which is conspiracy against the State is a very serious offence. It is quite puzzling how the ex CEO could get bail when the two co accused chief accountant, Rejjad Ahmad Barbhuyan, and secretary, Panna Das, of Cachar Zilla Parishad were arrested. Both Rejjad and Panna were not only arrested but also sent to jail and lodged there for 15 days. He fears that the investigation in the scam may not be conducted in a fair and transparent manner. He reminded that it was under section
120 B IPC that Sanjay Dutt was sent to jail. It was under this section that D Raja, Union Minister of Telecommunications, was jailed for 6 months. Santanu Naik, another lawyer of repute, agrees with Dutta Roy and says that the Cachar police showed its incompetence in properly representing the case before the Barasat Court. All out efforts have been made behind the scenes by an influential political syndicate to foil the arrest of Banhishikha Dutta who has expressed her willingness to spill the beans on the deep rooted scam of Cachar Zilla Parishad.
The open loot of development funds has been going on in Cachar Zilla Parishad for a long time. This has been well reflected in the audit report of District Rural Sector Audit from 2006-11 and submitted to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). The report found abundant anomalies and irregularities in total violation of all the standing rules, regulations and procedures. Crores of rupees have been withdrawn through self cheques in the name of development and distributed in cash among the junior engineers without maintaining any disbursement register, ledger book, process work record and evaluation. Between 2009 and 2011, ex CEO, Banhishikha Dutta, withdrew Rs 17.47 crore through self cheques.
How funds have continued to flow since the introduction of the Panchayati Raj to Cachar Zilla Parishad can well be understood from the exposure made by North East Rural Development Forum on the basis of information sought through RTI. Between 2006 and 2013, for 7 years in continuation, Rs 134 crore has been allotted to Cachar Zilla Parishad under Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF), Decentralized District Planning (DDP), Twelfth Finance Commission (TFC) and Fourth Assam Finance (FAF) for the implementation of development schemes and projects. The Forum has discovered from the disclosures that there exists a wide gap between implementation and utilization of funds. The Forum has demanded that the district administration of Cachar should publish in its website all the details of funds received and how they were utilized, failing which it will initiate a legal course of action. From all accounts, the Panchayati Raj System in Silchar, instead of being the medium for decentralization of development has turned into a cesspool of corruption. The question that arises here is how long will the political class continue to protect Banhishikha Dutta, the kingpin of the unprecedented scam of Cachar Zilla Parishad. BJP leaders and workers in large numbers stormed the Cachar Zilla Parishad, laying siege to the office and demanding a CBI probe into the scam in view of the massive corruption. Even as police officers are confident that Dutta will soon be in police custody, it remains to be seen who wins – The public or the politicians.
