Rift between 2 ministers led to Patna EOU raid, Rs 10 crore burnt, alleges Tejashwi Yadav

Patna, Aug 25 (IANS) While all parties are gearing up for polls, Tejashwi Yadav on Monday made a sensational allegation through a social media post regarding the recent raid by the Bihar Police’s Economic Offences Unit (EOU) at the residence of a senior engineer.

In a post on X, Tejashwi alleged that the raid was not a routine anti-corruption move, but the fallout of a rift between two powerful ministers in the Nitish government.

“Rs 10 crore burnt! The corruption gifted by PM Modi and Nitish Kumar is such that, due to infighting between two big ministers over the division of billions in corruption money, one of them got the EOU to raid an engineer’s house. By the time the EOU reached, Rs 10 crore in cash was burnt. The pipes got blocked due to the ashes of burnt notes. Later, the remaining notes were recovered,” Tejashwi wrote.

He further claimed that one of the ministers involved is flying in his own helicopter (not the party’s), purchased with black money from the department.

The controversy erupted after the EOU carried out a major raid at the residence of Vinod Kumar Rai, Superintending Engineer of the Rural Works Department (Sitamarhi Division), on Bhootnath Road in Patna.

According to official reports, around Rs 35 lakh in cash, property papers, jewellery, and investments worth crores were seized. About Rs 20 lakh in half-burnt notes were found inside the house.

Sources said the EOU team arrived late Thursday night but was denied entry by the engineer’s wife, who raised an alarm. The team waited outside for hours. Around 5 a.m., as the smell of burning notes emerged, the door was broken open. Inside, officers discovered currency notes being burnt and even thrown into the drain.

Tejashwi Yadav’s allegations have further fuelled the controversy, suggesting that intra-ministerial rivalry triggered the raid rather than a genuine corruption crackdown.

His remarks have intensified the political slugfest, with opposition leaders accusing the government of shielding high-level corruption while targeting lower officials.

The revelation has sparked widespread curiosity as to which “powerful ministers” Tejashwi is hinting at, a question that remains unanswered but is expected to dominate Bihar’s political narrative in the coming days.

–IANS

ajk/uk