New Delhi/Patna: A firm named Urmila International Services Private Limited purportedly offered cash and expensive gifts to government officials and entities in Bihar aiming to ‘facilitate the seamless operation’ to reap illegal profits through contract recruitment within the government sectors, The Wire reported.
The report comes as Bihar is heading for the Assembly poll with the BJP-led regime touting that the alliance will return to power.
The Wire Hindi, according to the outlet, previously reported how the firm ‘effectively established a monopoly over contract recruitment within the government sectors’ of the state.
It is reported citing documents captured by the Income Tax department in February 2024 that the company of Patna resident Kumar Avinash allegedly distributed what it said crores of rupees in cash alongside gold and silver coins, and expensive gifts.
The gifts were allegedly given away to several senior officials in the state’s government departments, district-level officials, public sector undertakings, railways, banks, and other organisations.
The documents reportedly detail the amounts, dates and gifts having been distributed, giving an insight into the network’s crafty activities.
It is reported that Ranjan Kumar, the Principal Director (Investigation) of the Income Tax Department in Patna at that time, in June 2024 in a letter to Brajesh Mehrotra, the then Chief Secretary of the Bihar government, gave details of the extent of the scam but the government has not taken any action yet.
Kumar Avinash’s company, according to the Income Tax department, had secured responsibility of appointing candidates on a contractual basis in government departments by, what the report claimed, offering bribes to officials.
Kumar Avinash gave cash and gold coins to health department officials on multiple occasions with the report particularly pointing to the executive director of the department at that time, Sanjay Kumar Singh receiving two payments: Rs 40 lakh and Rs 21 lakh.
The reports further said, citing the Income Tax department, that Kumar Avinash’s company, by offering bribes to officials, influenced the recruitments carried out by Bihar State Electronics Development Corporation Limited (BELTRON), which is responsible for providing human resources to the government of Bihar.