‘I got 17 crore as advance, hope to get more’

After an investigation by The Indian Express exposed the multi-crore Bihar flood scam and established that he was the recipient of siphoned-off funds, Jha invited this correspondent to an unfurnished apartment of a multi-storeyed building in Patna.

‘‘Now that I am explaining things to you, do not use the word scam. There is no scam. In fact, I chipped in at the right moment and provided relief to lakhs of people,’’ Jha said.

‘‘The Rs 17 crore we received were advances. We have not yet submitted bills. Statements of the BSSIC (nodal agency for flood relief distribution) and Patna district administration are not taking into account the version of the suppliers,’’ he claimed.

‘‘My Punam Printing Press was blacklisted after the Katihar FIR (Jha is an accused in a case of siphoning of Rs 2.25 crore from literacy funds in Katihar in 2003). I had to find a way out and I changed it to Santosh Printing Press.’’

‘‘I got the contract from the BSSIC and gave it to Baba Satya Sai Industries. They (he doesn’t explain who) supplied material on advances paid and the final settlement is yet to be done. You should wait till I submit the bills.’’

Asked about his links with Sadhu Yadav, Jha said the RJD leader was like his ‘‘brother’’.

‘‘Now that my name has been tainted, I will wait till it is cleared. Only then will I re-establish contact with him.’’

He also praised former Patna DM Gautam Goswami whose recent career switch from the IAS to Sahara Group is itself mired in controversy: ‘‘Bihar needs more officers like him. If you keep writing things like this, no DM will go about his work when the floods come the next time.

Nobody will buy relief material and the poor and helpless will die.’’

It was from the Patna DM’s account that Rs 17.45 crore was withdrawn and deposited into the account of the BSSI—not the Bihar State Small Industries Corporation but the Baba Satya Sai Industries, a firm which figures nowhere in the official list of relief suppliers.

‘‘I am worth crores. Now all property is mortgaged to give supplies to the poor. My association with the BSSIC goes back years. I get the contracts and they take a six per cent commission about which they are happy.’’

Yet Jha contradicts Goswami’s claims. For one, the former DM had said that bills of all payments and more were pending—Jha said he had not submitted any bills. Earlier, Patna District Magistrate Sudheer Kumar too said his office had no bills pending.