IAS officer who stumbled upon fodder scam in 1996

NEW DELHI: Who could have imagined Chaibasa, headquarter of West Singhbum, as the epicenter of a multi-crore rupee scam. Not even Amit Khare IAS, who once held charge as DM of the district. He’s now joint secretary, HRD ministry.

He was following up additional finance commissioner S Vijay Raghvan’s orders when he stumbled upon the fodder scam. Raghvan’s directive was in the light of Bihar’s sorry financial position and an RBI alert.

On January 27, 1996 Khare found that in November and December 1995, Rs 10 crore and Rs 9 crore had been withdrawn and made enquiries. “I doubted the withdrawals. It could be due to clearance of old bills. I summoned animal husbandry officials , who I was told had run away,” Khare recalls.

On a visit to the animal husbandry department, his doubts were confirmed. “It seemed someone had tried to destroy files in a hurry. All over the office there were bills, seals and suppliers’ pads,” he says. He sealed the treasury and drew up an inventory.

Raids began. “Such withdrawals had been taking place for many years,” Khare says. In total, Rs 37.7 crore had been withdrawn from Chaibasa treasury. The state set up a probe. “But two TOI journalists exposed how members of the probe were involved in the scam,” says Khare. Reprisal was swift. He was first sent to the Bihar State Leather Corporation, then moved as secretary, Board of Examinations, a defunct body.