Two AHD officials held in scam

PATNA, May 24: The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested two Animal Husbandry Department (AHD) officials, including a district AHD o...

PATNA, May 24: The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested two Animal Husbandry Department (AHD) officials, including a district AHD officer from Darbhanga in connection with the Rs 950 crore fodder scam.

CBI sleuths picked up the district AHD officer, Mohammed Vasimmuddin from his house at Darbhanga, while veterinary doctor Vimal Kumar Das was taken into custody by the agency’s officials from his native village Dakra under Bahera police station in Darbhanga district, official sources said today.

Several documents were also reportedly seized when their houses were searched.

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The two AHD officials were later remanded to CBI custody for three days and were produced before the special court here.

Meanwhile, Bihar minister for Revenue and Land Reforms Inder Singh Namdhari today criticised Chief Minister Laloo Prasad for “undermining the authority of his cabinet colleagues” and called for a change in the state Janata Dal Legislature Party (JDLP) leadership.

Without directly seeking Laloo Yadav’s resignation in the wake of the CBI seeking sanction for charge-sheeting him, Namdhari, who resigned from the state Cabinet on Friday, in a statement here said, “I leave it to his discretion.”

“I am all for the unity of the Dal and a situation should not be allowed to develop in which the party splits. I would even urge Prasad’s blessings for the change in leadership. The nation is greater than a party and a party is greater than an individual,” Namdhari, whose resignation is yet to be officially accepted, said.

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“If Prasad, with his astute political sense can solve the leadership problem at the Centre, he can do so even in Bihar where the Janata Dal is in absolute majority,” he added.