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Patna,(BiharTimes): A division Bench of Patna High Court comprising Chief Justice Rekha Manharlal Doshit and Justice S K Katriar on Friday reserved its order on the Interlocutory Application (IA) of the state government that has sought a stay on the court’s earlier order favouring a CBI probe into misappropriation of Rs 11,412.54 crore for which expenditure details were not submitted to the Accountant General (AG), Bihar.

The Bench kept in abeyance parts of its earlier order whereby it was to consider a CBI investigation into the matter. The court also kept in abeyance its order directing the CBI’s director and joint director to present themselves before the court on July 26.

The above said amount was withdrawn by state officials for executing various schemes between fiscal 2002-2003 and 2007-08.

The Bench had passed its earlier order on a PIL which alleged financial irregularities on the basis of a CAG report, which pointed out the growing trend of not furnishing Detailed Contingent Bills (DCB) for the money withdrawn by the state officials against Abstract Contingent Bills (ACB).

Advocate General P K Shahi and Additional Advocate General Lalit Kishore pleaded before the Bench that there was no case for the court to take the prima facie impression that the amount for which the DCB were not sent to the AG-Bihar, had been plundered.

However, the counsel of the petitioner Dinu Kumar, equated it with the fodder scam as in that case too the DCB were kept pending for years. He also countered the state plea that the high court could not interfere in the matter because the CAG report is under the scrutiny of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the state legislative assembly. He reminded that two PAC chairmen Dhruv Bhagat (the BJP MLA) and Jagdish Sharma (then Congress MLA), who had given a clean chit to the scamsters, had landed in jail.

The counsel of AG, Bihar, L P K Rajgrihar submitted that the Bihar Treasury Code provides for adjustment of advances taken against AC Bills by submitting DC Bills within six months of the money spent.

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