Ex-Malda DM arrested for involvement in Rs 200-cr SJDA scam

Former Malda District Magistrate Godala Kiran Kumar was today arrested by CID from Maynaguri in connection with an alleged financial scam of around Rs 200 crore under the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority (SJDA).
Sources in CID have confirmed the arrest.
Kumar was earlier arrested while serving as DM of Malda in connection with the scam in which he is alleged to have siphoned off funds when he was the CEO of SJDA.
Soon after Kumar's arrest in November, 2013, he was granted bail and the then Siliguri Police Commissioner K Jayraman was put on compulsory waiting as he did not take approval from the state secretariat, Nabanna, for the arrest.

Interestingly, Kumar had joined Nabanna as a joint secretary in the agriculture department this February.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), probing the SJDA scam, had written to West Bengal Chief Secretary asking it to deduct Kumar's salary for his alleged involvement in the scam. It had also sought details of Kumar's assets so that it could seize the same.

The money trail, which the ED was probing, had revealed that for projects like electric crematoriums at Malbazar, Maynaguri and Bagdogra and for CCTV cameras to be installed across Siliguri town, money was paid before completion of the projects.
Kumar, a 2005-batch IAS officer from Andhra Pradesh, was named in eight FIRs of which four were lodged by Sharad Dwivedi, who succeeded him as the SJDA CEO. The other cases were lodged by an SJDA engineer.

The alleged financial irregularities at SJDA came to light after Gautam Deb, the North Bengal development minister, became the SJDA chairman in 2013.