Lalu Prasad Yadav, former chief minister of Bihar and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo, was on Tuesday was found guilty in Rs 139 crore scam from the Doranda (Jharkhand) treasury. According to a media report, the Doranda treasury scam could be a bizarre case where documents showed that cattle were transported from Haryana and Punjab to Bihar on scooters during the years 1990-92. A special CBI court in Ranchi had concluded hearing the case on January 29 this year and had fixed February 15 because the date to pronounce its order
Fodder scam: How It Started
The fodder scam, popularly referred to as chaara ghotala, refers to dozens of cases of monetary irregularities to the tune of around Rs 930 crore within the husbandry department of the undivided Bihar between 1985-1995. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had warned about hiding in Bihar’s treasuries in 1985 when expenditure details weren’t furnished in a very timely fashion.
It started with small-scale fraud by low-level government employees but grew to involve businesses and politicians. Meanwhile, the Bihar police also filed multiple FIRs on the instructions of the government. On the opposite hand, multiple public interest litigations (PIL) were filed within the Patna judicature handy the case over to the CBI. one amongst these was moved by BJP leaders Sushil Modi, Saryu Rai and Shivanand Tiwari
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That year, the CBI requested the governor of Bihar permission to prosecute Lalu, who was the chief minister, and filed a charge sheet against him and 55 others in June 1997 under Sections 420 (forgery) and 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian legal code and Section 13 (b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. After Lalu was named within the CBI charge sheet, there was a political fallout.
She won the vote of confidence. In 2001, Jharkhand was created and also the cases were transferred to its state. On the routine of the scam, the CBI notes, “The scamsters adopted a novel procedure altogether the cases by making fraudulent, excess withdrawals from the treasuries in Bihar on the strength of forged and fabricated allotment letters and faux supply orders for creating payment to suppliers, who submitted bills without affecting the provision or in a very few cases, by making a partial supply of feed, fodder, medicine, instruments and other materials.”
He was an MP at the time and was disqualified from contesting any election for eleven years. In December 2017, he was convicted in another case, where he has sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail and Rs 10 lakh in fine for illegal withdrawal from the Deoghar treasury. But Jagannath Mishra was acquitted. In January 2018, he was convicted in another Chaibasa treasury case for illegal withdrawal of Rs 33.67 crore and awarded a five-year jail term in March the identical year, sentenced to seven years in jail in a very case associated with the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 3.13 crore from the Dumka treasury.
He was released last year after the Jharkhand judicature suspended his remaining jail term within the Dumka treasury scam – because he had already served half the sentence. He finally walked out of jail in May last year. In the Doranda treasury case, since some persons who were convicted are awarded three years’ imprisonment, it’s believed that Lalu can also get the same sentence. If this happens, he may walk free, consistent with lawyers.
