Fugitive former director of Assam social welfare department Kumud Kalita fell into CBI dragnet in Guwahati on Monday. Kalita was arrested by the sleuths of CBI from near the Gauhati High Court. CBI sleuths reportedly caught hold of Kalita when he was on his way to surrender before the court.
Kalita is an accused in multi-crore scam during his tenure as the director of the department in 2014-15. Kalita remained elusive from February last year after the expose’.
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The vigilance and anti-corruption bureau of the state has even announced a reward of rupees one lakh to the person who can provide information about Kalita.
The vigilance and anti-corruption bureau of Assam has already filed a chargesheet at the special court last year against 11 people in connection with a scam of over Rs 2,000 crore involving the social welfare department. Among those chargesheeted were two IAS officers – Dilip Borthakur and Kumud Kalita – and Assam Civil Service officer Dipalee Devi.
Kalita served as director of the social welfare department during the period when the alleged scam had taken place.
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The other accused include district social welfare officer (DSWO) of Goalpara district, Himi Bora, Kamrup DSWO district Kishori Dutta, project officer Kulendra Saikia, upper division assistant Debasish Dey, lower division assistant Sajid Hussain and finance and accounts officers Rajat Subhra Bhattacharya and Manohar Deka, and contractor Paban Agarwal.
Chargesheets against the accused were filed under Sections 120(B) (criminal conspiracy), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 420 (cheating) and 409 (criminal breach of trust) of the IPC and Sections 13(1)(d) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
Government funds of more than Rs 2,000 crore were siphoned off during implementation of three schemes – the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) and Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY) – during the 15-year Congress rule in the state.