A special CBI court in Ranchi on Saturday convicted former Bihar Minister Md. Illiyas Hussain and four others in connection with the long-standing bitumen transportation scam that dates back 27 years.
The verdict marks a significant development in the case, which involved fraudulent transportation claims related to road construction projects.
The court sentenced Md. Illiyas Hussain, who served as Bihar's Road Construction Minister in the 1990s, along with his then Secretary Shahabuddin Baigh and three others—Pawan Kumar Agarwal, Ashok Kumar Agarwal, and Vinay Kumar Sinha—to three years of rigorous imprisonment. Additionally, each of the convicts was fined Rs 32 lakh.
According to officials, the case revolved around the alleged transportation of bitumen from Haldia in West Bengal to the Road Construction Department (RCD) in Hazaribagh, Bihar (now Jharkhand), via Barauni.
However, investigations revealed that no actual transportation took place. Instead, the bitumen was lifted from Haldia and illicitly sold in the open market in Kolkata. Meanwhile, the accused fraudulently claimed transportation charges, causing significant financial losses to the state exchequer.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered the FIR in this case in 1997, following allegations of corruption in the procurement and transportation of bitumen for road construction projects.
After years of investigation, the agency filed its chargesheet in 2001, detailing the fraudulent scheme and the roles of those involved.
The conviction of the former minister and his associates underscores the ongoing efforts to bring accountability in corruption cases related to public infrastructure projects.
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