Sadhu Yadav chargesheeted in flood-relief scam

Anirudh Prasad alias Sadhu Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal member and brother-in-law of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and eight others were on Monday chargesheeted by the state vigilance bureau in connection with the multi-crore rupees flood relief scam.

The vigilance officials submitted the chargesheet in the court of special vigilance judge Ramnivas Prasad, bureau's Additional Director-General Neelmani said.

Those against whom chargesheets were filed included alleged kingpin of the scam Santosh Jha's wife Nidhi, his father Bhagwan Lal, the then private secretary of the MP Prabhakar Singh, Former Director of Bihar Health Services Durga Prasad Mandal and director of Pashupati cold storage Ritesh Agarwal for their alleged complicity in the scam after fresh evidence were found against them.

Justice Chandramauli Kumar of Patna High Court had on March 9 allowed Sadhu's petition for anticipatory bail in the case.

Neelmani said the High Court's bail order will become "null and void" after filing of the chargesheet and the lower court will take a fresh view of the charges on Wednesday. Sadhu Yadav has been charged with having received "slush money" from Jha from whose account Rs 6 lakh was transferred to Sadhu's account with the secretariat branch of the State Bank of India.

The chargesheet has been filed under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 420 (fraud), 465 (forgery), 467 (making a false document), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and 120 (b) of prevention of corruption act.