Fodder Scam
The Fodder Scam was a corruption scandal that involved the embezzlement of about ₹940 crore (equivalent to ₹48 billion or US$550 million in 2023) from the government treasury of the north Indian state of Bihar.
The corruption scheme involved the fabrication of "vast herds of fictitious livestock" for which fodder, medicines and animal husbandry equipment was supposedly procured.
[8] Besides the magnitude and duration of the theft, the scam was and continues to be covered in Indian media due to the extensive nexus between tenured bureaucrats, elected politicians and businesspeople that it revealed,[9] and as an example of the Mafia Raj that has penetrated several state-run economic sectors in the country.
[11] The scam had its origins in small-scale embezzlement by some government employees submitting false expense reports, which grew in magnitude and drew additional elements, such as politicians and businesses, over time, until a full-fledged mafia had formed.
In 1990 the executive committee of Bihar Veterinary Association was changed and Dr Dinneshwar Prasad Sharma was made the General Secretary of BVA.
[17] The then charismatic yet 'native' leader Lalu Prasad Yadav was the Chief Minister of undivided Bihar, where the then finance commissioner V S Dubey stumbled upon the financial irregularities of a massive scale.
In 1992, then Police Inspector Bidhu Bhushan Dvivedi who was with the state vigilance department submitted a detailed report highlighting the inclusion of high-profile persons including Chief Minister and others.
[18] He followed it up on 20 January 1996 by despatching one of his additional secretaries to make an enquiry of the excessive drawls of money by Animal Husbandry department from Ranchi treasury.
The documents his team seized, and went public with, conclusively indicated large-scale embezzlement by an organised mafia of officials and business people.
Jha, an associate director of Public Affairs, is currently working with anti-corruption crusader and good governance promoter Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament.
[23] On the same day, a businessman, Harish Khandelwal, who was one of the accused was found dead on train tracks with a note that stated that he was being coerced by the CBI to turn witness for the prosecution.
On 8 May 2017, In a major set back for RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav, the Supreme Court has ordered separate trials in all four cases registered against him in the Rs.
The governor, A. R. Kidwai, was accountable to the federal government, and had already stated that he would need to be satisfied that strong evidence against Lalu existed before he would permit a formal indictment to proceed.
"[26] The High Court, questioning the tactic, warned that it would allow some time for the permission to transpire, but if it sensed a delay, it would force a prosecution on its own authority.
[30] Also, on 21 June, fearing that evidence and documentation that might prove essential in further exposing the scam were being destroyed, the CBI conducted raids on Lalu's residence and those of some relatives suspected of complicity.
[31] On 23 June, the CBI filed chargesheets against Lalu and 55 other co-accused,[32] including Chandradeo Prasad Verma (a former union minister), Jagannath Mishra (former Bihar chief minister), two members of Lalu's cabinet (Bhola Ram Toofani and Vidya Sagar Nishad), three Bihar state assembly legislators (RK Rana of the Janata Dal, Jagdish Sharma of the Congress party, and Dhruv Bhagat of the Bharatiya Janata Party) and some current and former IAS officers (including the 4 who were already in custody).
[43] Looking retrospectively, Lalu has said that the scam had a lasting negative impact on his political career, and may have ended his prospects to one day be prime minister of India.
[45] There were reports that Joginder Singh had violated norms in keeping the new prime minister, IK Gujral, in the dark as he pursued the prosecution.
[47][48] On 30 June, the federal government issued orders to transfer Singh out of the CBI and into the Home Ministry as a Special Secretary,[46] which was technically a promotion but also had the effect of removing him from the investigation.
[54] The next year, on 28 October 1998, he was rearrested on a different conspiracy case relating to the fodder scam, at first being kept in the same guest house, but then being moved to Patna's Beur jail when the Supreme Court objected.
After the trial court in Chhattisgarh acquitted Amit Jogi in May 2007, for over three-and-a-half years, the CBI again (similar to Lalu's DA case) did not file any appeal.
[68] Former Bihar chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad was sentenced to five years in jail in a fodder scam case by a special CBI court on 3 October 2013.
The 65-year-old leader has lost his Lok Sabha seat and is also barred from contesting election for six years following the sentencing due to an earlier Supreme Court order.
[69] Since it broke into public light, the fodder scam has become symbolic of bureaucratic corruption and the criminalisation of politics in India generally, and in Bihar in particular.
"[70] In the Indian parliament, it was cited as an important indicator of the deep inroads made by Mafia Raj in the politics and economics of the country.
[71] Reference has also been made to the anarchic nature of governance (the "withering away of the state") that occurs when a mafia develops in a state-controlled sector of the economy.
For making a strong against case against the politicians and the bureaucrats, CBI launched the prosecution against majority of the officials including lower level staffs, which did not have any nexus with the scam.
On 24 January 2018 the court passed judgement for the third case and has awarded a five-year jail term and imposed a fine of ₹10,00,000/- (INR One Million) on Lalu Prasad Yadav.
[76] In 2021, Indian web series Maharani was loosely based on this scam and subsequently Rabri Devi was made the Chief Minister of Bihar.
