The case against him and 41 others was registered at the Vigilance Police Station in Patna. The then Assembly Secretary, Jhauri Prasad Pal, was also named under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.

Sadanand, who also served as the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee chief, represents Kahalgaon Assembly seat in the Bihar Assembly. He rejected the charge and said it was politically motivated move.
He alleged that a day before the lodging of case a former Congress MLC, who recently switched over to the Janata Dal (United), came to him with the offer of Rajya Sabha berth and Assembly ticket for his son. It was when he rejected the offer that the state government started a witch-hunt against him.

Sadanand told reporters in Patna that he had been framed because he refused to join the BJP. He said that he had the copy of preliminary Vigilance probe, which gave him a clean chit. “This is an attempt to malign my image,” he said.

Eleven officials and 29 candidates have been charged under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 477(A), 201 and 120 (B) of the IPC and Section 13 (II) read with 13 (I) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

If found guilty the accused can even face life imprisonment. The examination for appointment of lower grade clerks through advertisement number 20/2001 was conducted on August 11, 2002. Altogether 90 people were appointed in different phases. Thirty of them are alleged to be relatives and family members of the accused persons.

A Vigilance team led by Senior DSP, Prakash Nath Mishra, reportedly found evidence of irregularities in the recruitment process during the preliminary probe.

It needs to be recalled that between 2000 and 2005 Congress was in alliance with the Rabri Devi-led RJD government. All its 24 MLAs were ministers while Sadanand Singh made the Speaker.
At present the Congress has only four MLAs.

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