Friday, July 8 2005 17:35 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Siwan (Bihar): The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) today (July 8, 2005) charged the vigilance bureau with acting 'under pressure' to save RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) supremo Laloo Prasad and some former State Ministers, including Ramai Ram and Ramvichar Rai, allegedly involved in the multi-crore flood relief scam and demanded a CBI inquiry.

''The inquiry by the State vigilance bureau into the scam is nothing but an eyewash. It is aimed at saving the politicians, including RJD boss Laloo Prasad and former party ministers Ram and Rai whose names have cropped up during the investigation,'' the State BJP president, Sushil Kumar Modi, told reporters in Siwan.

Modi alleged that the jailed former Patna district magistrate, Gautam Goswami, was appointed the nodal officer for carrying out relief in flood-hit districts in Bihar at the behest of Laloo Prasad.

He claimed that names of Ram and Rai, besides Laloo's brother-in-law and Lok Sabha member from Gopalganj, Anirudh Prasad alias Sadhu Yadav, had also cropped up as beneficiaries during the interrogation of the alleged kingpin of the scam and supplier of relief material, Santosh Kumar Jha.

''The vigilance bureau is acting under pressure and will book only small fries while allowing the politicians who allegedly patronised the scamsters to go scot-free,'' he charged.