Bihar: Three fodder scam files go missing, FIR registered

PATNA: Three important files related to the fodder scam, corruption scandal that involved the embezzlement of over 900 crore, have disappeared from Bihar Animal and Fisheries Resources Department's office in Patna. An FIR has been lodged at old secretariat police station of Patna in connection with the missing files. Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav has been convicted in the 17-year-old fodder scam case that dates back to his days as Bihar’s chief minister, and had faced immediate disqualification as a member of Parliament under a recent Supreme Court judgment in 2013. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) targeted Bihar chief minister and JDU leader Nitish Kumar for the missing files, as JDU is in power in Bihar in alliance with RJD and Congress. What is the fodder scam? The scam pertains to fraudulent withdrawal of public money worth Rs 950 crore from the treasuries of undivided Bihar under the head of the animal husbandry department (AHD) from 1990 onwards. The withdrawals were carried out on the basis of fake bills and vouchers for buying feed, fodder and medicine for livestock by AHD officials in connivance with suppliers and the top layer of the state’s bureaucracy and politicians cutting across parties, including the RJD, Congress, JD(U) and the BJP. Some CBI sleuths preferred to refer to it as “treasury scam” instead of fodder scam How did the scam surface? The CAG was the first to point out the anomalies in successive reports. The CAG, in its annual reports for the fiscals 1992-93, 93-94, 94-95 and 95-96, pointed to the excess withdrawal by the AHD from the treasuries. The then Lalu Prasad government did not table these reports on the floor of the legislature and kept them away from public glare. The scandal surfaced when the government tabled the CAG reports in the legislature in December 1995. Then deputy commissioner, West Singhbhum, Amit Khare was the first to follow up on the CAG’s report that detected a fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore from the Chaibasa treasury. The first FIR with police was lodged on January 24, 1996. The CBI numbered the case RC-20A/1996 when it took over the fodder scam investigation on March 19, 1996, on the Supreme Court’s order.