According to indictments in the case, politicians and senior officials in Bihar invented phantom livestock herds, then made fraudulent payments for fodder and medicine for the animals, as well as for artificial insemination equipment.

The first report on Lalu and Mishra’s involvement in the fodder scam was presented by then Vigilance police inspector Bidhu Bhushan Dvivedi to then Vigilance director general G Narayan. The inspector is now a witness in many of the fodder scam cases. Then CBI director, Patna, U N Biswas was hailed for “honestly” pursuing the case against Lalu, at a time when the Union Government of H D Deve Gowda and then I K Gujral depended on the Bihar chief minister for support.

Lalu is charged in five cases in the scam, four of them pending before Jharkhand courts. Lalu and Rabri were acquitted in a disproportionate assets case, an offshoot of the fodder scam, by a Patna court in December 2006. Four of the cases against Lalu relate to the larger conspiracy behind the fodder scam. In 1997, after a court issued an arrest warrant against him in one of the cases, Lalu had to resign as chief minister. However, he did so after first threatening to unleash violence in the state if he was arrested — prompting the Centre to rush extra forces to the state — and then installing Rabri in his place before he stepped down.

Lalu has been to jail thrice in connection with the fodder scam cases, the longest stint lasting 90 days. With Rabri at the helm, his time in Patna’s Beur Jail may not have been that uncomfortable.

... contd.