Fodder Scam popularly known as "Chara Ghotala" is a multimillion-corruption scandal that became symbolic of bureaucratic corruption and criminalisation of Indian politics and cited as deep inroads of mafiaraj in Indian politics.
Fodder Scam popularly known as "Chara Ghotala" is a multimillion-corruption scandal that became symbolic of bureaucratic corruption and criminalisation of Indian politics and cited as deep inroads of mafiaraj in Indian politics.
In the fodder scam, several opticians, bureaucrats and mafia embezzled approximately Rs.950-crore in the name of fodder, medicines and animal husbandry equipment procurements. The nexus of politics and mafia came into lime light from this scam.
The scandal which initially looked small, later become the biggest scam of 90s.
The Rs.9.5-billion corruption scandal erupted in 1996 when Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav was the erstwhile Chief Minister of Bihar that later forced him to leave the CM post in 1997.
Several cases were registered against him and former Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra along with several politicians and IAS officer by state police which were later transffered to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
As much as 53 cases were registered by CBI and over 500 accused were found guilty in Chara Ghotala in different trials.
Out of 53 cases, trials in 44 cases have been completed till Sep 2013.
The name of Nitish Kumar and Shivanand Tiwari were also involeved in the fodder scam. Both Nitish and Tiwatri are accused of receiving 1 crore and 60 lakh Rupees respectively from S.B. Sinha.
On 17 June, the erstwhile governor A R Kidwai gave permission for Lalu and others to be prosecuted. Five senior Bihar government officials (Mahesh Prasad, science and technology secretary; K. Arumugam, labour secretary; Beck Julius, animal husbandry department secretary; Phoolchand Singh, former finance secretary; Ramraj Ram, former AHD director), the first 4 of whom were IAS officers, were taken into judicial custody on the same day.
On 23 June, the CBI filed chargesheets against Laloo and 55 other co-accused, including Chandradeo Prasad Verma (a former union minister), Jagannath Mishra (former Bihar chief minister), two members of Laloo'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) charging them for allegedly counterfeit withdrawing of Rs 37.7 crore from Chaibasa Treasury in the 1990s.
During 17-years long trial only 45 accused remained out of 55 and on Sep 30, 2013, the Ranchi High Court found guilty to all accused.
Yadav moved the Jharkhand High Court and later the Supreme Court of India, seeking change of the judge in the case. Both the courts dismissed his petition, and directed him to complete argument in the case before the CBI court.
Yadav had in his petition alleged that trial court judge P K Singh was biased against him as he is a relative of P K Shahi, Education Minister in the Nitish Kumar Government in Bihar, "who is his (Yadav"s) biggest political enemy".
The quantam of punishment will come on Oct 03, 2013.
