Bihar Fodder Scam: Unveiling the scandal orchestrated by politicians.
One of the early cases of large scale corruption is the Bihar Fodder Scam. The main premise of the scam is a series of producing a huge amount of fake bills of payments that were never made and lasted for about 10 years and led to a scam of ₹ 950 Crores. This scandal saw the involvement of various polticians as well.
BY HARSHIT GUPTA | 10 min Read
Revelation
A bunch of Income tax raids in 1993 revealed that nearly 80 AHD officers and suppliers had gathered property worth Rs 25 crore but before any action could be taken, the Income tax officer leading the raids to uncover the scam was transferred and the case was put in the back shelf, according to a India Today report from that time.
Then in 1994, another discovery of a fraudulent transaction was made. It was found that the regional AHD director of Dumka, withdrew around 50 lakh rupees using fake bills. However, the chairman of the assembly's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Jagdish Sharma, a supporter of Jagannath Mishra, also an accused in the case, budged in, claiming that the PAC was already investigating such matters and the Vigilance Department should not proceed further. This dissolved the matter.
The matter was blazing up, then in 1997, the BJP chief of Bihar, Sushil Modi filed a PIL, asking for a CBI enquiry in the case. This started the tussle between then Chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and the CBI.
When the matter was finally uncovered by the CBI, it was stated that a large amount of government money was looted by the government officials, amounting to ₹ 950 Crores in a span of 10 years. Cleverly enough, Lalu Prasad Yadav stepped down from the CM post and installed his wife Rabri Devi as the CM. She won the vote of confidence.
As years passed by, more and more cases were filed. Most of them were filed to Jharkhand High Court after the division of Bihar into Bihar and Jharkhand in November 2000. According to the initial chargesheet filed against Lalu Prasad Yadav, he was kept in judicial custody for 135 days, and was released on bail on 12 November,1997. He was again kept in custody the next year and then again in 2000. However, he was in jail for only 11 days.
Status
As of May 2013, the trial has completed in 44 cases out of a total of 53 cases. More than 500 accused have been convicted and awarded punishments by various courts. Some of the most prominent convicts include former CM of Bihar Lalu Prasad, former MP Rabindra Kumar Rana and former MLA Dhruv Bhagat.
On 30 September 2013, a Special CBI Court in Ranchi convicted Lalu Prasad Yadav and Jagannath Mishra along with 44 others in the case. Thirty-seven people were taken into judicial custody. The court has announced a sentence of five years and four years for Laloo and Jagannath Mishra, respectively.
Since the case was uncovered to the public, the scam showed the bureaucratic corruption in India and particularly Bihar. It also indicated the rise of the mafia raj in the political and economic matters of the country. It showed how corruption at a small level and through falsified transactions, a 950 Crore rupee scam took place. To prevent scams of similar kind, their is a need of moral education at the grassroot level bureaucracy.