Fodder Scam - Prosecution

Prosecution

As the CBI discovered further evidence over the following years, it filed additional cases related to fraud and criminal conspiracy based on specific criminal acts of illegal withdrawals from the Bihar treasury. Most new cases filed after the division of Bihar state (into the new Bihar and Jharkhand states) in November 2000 were filed in the new Jharkhand High Court located in Ranchi, and several cases previously filed in the Bihar High Court in Patna were also transferred to Ranchi. Of the 63 cases that the agency had filed by May 2007, the majority were being litigated in the Ranchi High Court.

Laloo's initial chargesheet, filed by the CBI on 27 April 1996, was against case RC 20-A/96, relating to fraudulent withdrawals of 37 crore (US$6.73 million) from the Chaibasa treasury of the (then) Bihar government, and was based on statutes including Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating) and 120(B) (criminal conspiracy), as well as section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Even though he had been jailed, he was kept in relative comfort at the Bihar Military Police guest house. After 135 days in judicial custody, Laloo was released on bail on December 12, 1997. 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 being granted bail, he was rearrested yet again in a disproportionate assets case on 5 April 2000. His wife and then Chief Minister Rabri Devi was also asked to surrender on that date, but then immediately granted bail. This stint in prison lasted 11 days for Laloo, followed by a one-day imprisonment in another fodder scam case on 28 November 2000.

Jagannath Mishra had been permitted bail in June 1997, and avoided judicial remand when Laloo was first detained in July 1997. However, he was taken into custody on 16 September of the same year. He was freed on bail on 13 October but then remanded again, at the same time as Laloo, on October 28, 1998, when he was kept at the same guest house as Laloo, and later shifted to Beur jail along with him. Mishra was freed on bail on December 18, but then rearrested in a different fodder scam case on 7 June 2000.

Due to the multiplicity of cases, Laloo Yadav, Jagannath Mishra, and the other accused have been remanded several times in the years since 2000. In 2007, 58 former officials and suppliers were convicted, and given terms of 5 to 6 years each. As of May 2007, about 200 people had been punished with jail terms of between 2 and 7 years. A 2005 litigation of one of the cases (RC 68-A/96) in the Ranchi High Court involved over 20 truckloads of documents.

On 1 March 2012, nearly 16 years after CBI was handled over the case, a special CBI court in Patna framed charges against Lalu Prasad Yadav and Jagannath Mishra along with 32 other accused. Of the total 44 accused, six have died, two have turned approvers, while two others are still evading arrest. The CBI had chargesheeted them in this case on March 3, 2003. The court said that the trial would begin soon.