Assam ICDS scam: V&AC grills another former minister

Gautam Roy, the former Social Welfare minister was grilled by the V&AC sleuths for four hours and collected several vital clues in the multi crore scam, which happened during  during the Congress tenure.

The V&AC team had grilled former minister Akon Bora on January 20 last.

AGDP of V&AC, YK Gautam said that, financial anomalies took place during Gautam Roy’s tenure as Social Welfare minister.

“Anomalies took place in supply of construction materials and also in appointment in various posts,” the top cops said.

Meanwhile, the V&AC summoned another former minister Ajanta Neog and asked her to appear at the V&AC office on Feb 6 next.

The V&AC team also summoned eight former directors of the department to appear before the investigating team.

The vigilance team had grilled at least 21 officials including three IAS officials into the scam.

Last year, the Assam CM had directed to probe the multi crore scam during the previous Congress regime.

During the investigation, it was revealed that an amount of Rs 150 crore was siphoned off every year from the social welfare department of the state for the past 15 years.

The investigation also detected nine lakh fake entries of ‘ghost children’ in the ICDS list.

The top official of V&AC said that 390 fake Anganwadi centres have been identified, which were fraudulently entered for siphoning off the money.

The V&AC sleuths had arrested an employee of Social Welfare department last year.

The investigating team had also seized several dozens file in connection with the multi crore scam.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)