Bihar to confiscate BJP lawmaker’s assets
February 4th, 2012 - 4:02 pm ICT by IANS
Patna, Feb 4 (IANS) After confiscating the assets of corrupt officials, Bihar has now initiated a process to confiscate the property of a ruling party legislator in a corruption case, officials Saturday said.
The state vigilance department has moved the Patna civil court for a direction to confiscate Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Sonelal Hembrum’s assets. BJP is a coalition partner in the ruling coalition headed by Nitish Kumar.
“The vigilance department has filed a petition in court to confiscate Hembrum’s moveable and immovable property disproportionate to his known source of income. His property will be attached after court permissionm,” a vigilance official said.
Vigilance lodged a case against Hembrum, a former deputy commissioner in the excise department, for amassing assets including property valued at over Rs.24 lakh during his official tenure. Vigilance had raided his residence in 1997 and then lodged a case against him.
An official in the vigilance department told IANS on condition of anonymity that this is the first time in Bihar when an official-turned-politician’s assets would be confiscated. “For the first time, the government has initiated a move to confiscate the property of any elected representive in a disproportionate assets case,” the official said.
Three days ago,a special vigilance court ordered the confiscation of the assets of former Bihar police chief Narayan Mishra and his wife on corruption charges. The court has asked the Patna district magistrate to make the seizures within 30 days. Mishra has been accused of having assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
Till date, the Bihar government has confiscated the houses of an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Shiv Shankar Verma, and a treasury clerk, Girish Kumar.
Proceedings to confiscate properties of some more officials, including former drug controller Y.K. Jaiswal, revenue officer Yogendra Prasad Singh, engineer Srikant Prasad and former Rajbhasha Parishad director B.N. Chowdhary have also been initiated.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar gave his nod for prosecution of 11 officials of various departments last year.
The government last year put in place the Special Courts Act to confiscate properties of corrupt officials.
- To track ill-gotten assets, Bihar ready to cross borders - Feb 16, 2012
- BJP issues show cause notice to legislator in Bihar - Feb 05, 2012
- Court orders confiscation of former DGP's assets - Feb 01, 2012
- Bihar cracks whip again, sacks corrupt official - Jan 24, 2012
- CBI to adopt Bihar law to seize homes of corrupt - Jan 28, 2012
- After house, corrupt Bihar official's land seized - Nov 21, 2011
- Another corrupt Bihar official's home to house school - Dec 04, 2011
- Another corrupt official's house confiscated in Bihar - Nov 19, 2011
- Bihar opens school in tainted officer's seized house - Sep 08, 2011
- Bihar government now targets corrupt middlemen - Jan 21, 2012
- Corrupt IAS officer in Bihar to be prosecuted - Sep 29, 2011
- Bihar to speed up prosecution of corrupt officials - Jan 24, 2011
- Confiscate properties of corrupt politicians: JD-U MP - Dec 20, 2010
- 462 corrupt officials arrested in Bihar - Aug 10, 2011
- Bihar moves another step to weed out corruption - Mar 01, 2011
Tags: bihar government, bihar police, civil court, coalition partner, corrupt officials, corruption case, corruption charges, deputy commissioner, district magistrate, excise department, immovable property, indian administrative service, jaiswal, janata party, lakh, mishra, nitish kumar, patna district, representive, vigilance