New Delhi: Jharkhand has become the state of scams and even though Wednesday will see the Assembly election results being declared, the headlines will be about yet another scam and not the elections.
A scam involving former Jharkhand sports minister Bandhu Tirkey has come to light just hours before counting of Assembly election begins in the state.
Just 24 hours before Koda was forced to step-down as chief minister of the state on August 23, 2008, Tirkey allegedly gave more money to contractors for organisation of National Games in Jharkhand.
The exclusive investigation done by CNN-IBN is related to purchase of sporting equipment and awarding of contracts for National Games which were supposed to be held this year in Jharkhand.
CNN-IBN has learnt that Tirkey had cleared files of contracts worth Rs 13 crore in a matter of few hours throwing all rule books in the dustbin.
He was appointed as vice chairman of the Games Organising Body by the then chief minister Madhu Koda.
He gave more money to contractors on paper for supplying equipment and planning a mega event to inaugurate the Games.
A detailed report on just how Tirkey managed to pull off awarding the contracts has been submitted to Jharkhand Governor K Sankaranarayanan on Tuesday by the investigating authorities.
Many see this as yet another attempt to keep Independents like Madhu Koda and Bandhu Tirkey under check lest they become important again in government formation.
All reports from the ground suggest that Jharkhand will have another hung Assembly.
With experience of 2005 on their mind where the Independents were being wooed both by the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for government formation, national political parties are wary of dealing with them from similar bargaining positions.
Coincidentally, both Koda and Tirkey are in jail facing cases of amassing disproportionate assets to their known sources of income.
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