In a first such case this year and a third since last year, the special vigilance court in Patna ordered the confiscation of the properties including houses of former divisional forest officer Bhola Prasad and his wife Maya Prasad, under the provisions of Bihar Special Courts Act, 2009, a official said. "The court has directed the district magistrates of Patna and Nalanda to confiscate the properties including the house within 30 days and inform the court of the proceedings" he added.
Prasad, an Indian Forest Service officer, was accused of amassing assets disproportionate to his known source of income and his wife was also accused of sharing ill-gotten wealth.
Officials in the vigilance court said that a case was lodged against Prasad in 2007 for amassing assets after a raid was conducted at his residence in Patna and Nalanda districts. The assets, as per a vigilance probe, were worth Rs 76 lakh and it also included 16 plots of land in his wife's name. It was found during an investigation by the vigilance officials that Prasad and his wife owned a building, six plots at Phulwarisharif in Patna, one plot at Bahadurpur under Agamkuan police station in Patna, land at Chitkohara in Patna, Helal village in Ranchi and Biharsharif in Nalanda.
In December, the Bihar government had confiscated a two-storey house of a suspended treasury clerk Girish Kumar located in the posh Kadamkuan area in Patna. The clerk has been accused of amassing assets worth Rs 51 lakh.
In June last year, the government had confiscated a three-storey house of former minor irrigation secretary Shiv Shankar Verma, an IAS officer. He became the first officer to face such action under the Bihar Special Courts Act, 2009. Later, the government opened school for poor children in both the properties.
According to state vigilance officials, 87 disproportionate assets cases have been registered in Bihar under prevention of Corruption Act. "The vigilance officials have arrested 72 public servants on charges of taking bribe at various places last year," an official said.
Proceedings to confiscate properties of some more officials including former state drug controller Y K Jaiswal, revenue officer Yogendera Prasad Singh, engineer Srikant Prasad and former director general of police Narayan Mishra, former Rajbhasha Parishad director B N Chowdhary have also been initiated.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had given his nod for prosecution of 11 officials of various departments on November 11. Kumar had declared a war against corruption after becoming the chief minister for the second consecutive term in November 2010.
"Soon after assuming office following a historic poll verdict last year, Nitish Kumar announced that corruption will not be tolerated and warned that government will confiscate properties of corrupt officials and turn these into primary schools," Janata Dal-United state president Vashisht Narayan Singh said.
