Alongside the Lalu cases, hearing in the others has been dragging on. In June this year, a CBI court awarded four years’ rigorous imprisonment to former IAS officer Sripati Narain Dubey for fraudulently withdrawing Rs 1.47 crore from the Dumka treasury in 1991-92 and 1995-96 as divisional commissioner, Santhal Parganas. Dubey was among the 34 accused convicted.

Other IAS officers, most of them retired by now, facing charges in the scam are Beck Julius, M C Subarno, Mahesh Prasad, K Arumugham and A C Choudhury.

Sixty-one of the 63 cases are being heard in Jharkhand. In one of the two Bihar cases, Lalu, Mishra, other politicians C P Verma and B R Toofani (now dead) and IAS officer Beck Julius are accused. The case, which relates to fraudulent withdrawal of about Rs 15 lakh, has reached the stage of framing of charges.

CBI advocate L R Ansari told The Indian Express: “The cases in Bihar are getting delayed because the accused in several cases are common. As we are not able to produce some accused here, there has been delay.” Jharkhand is insisting on disposal of cases pending there first, he added.

Besides, there are four disproportionate cases in Bihar involving part-time politician R K Rana (1996), government servant Sheshmani Ram (1997) and former Animal Husbandry in-charge director Ramraj Ram (2000).

With only two persons convicted for fodder scam in the state so far, the CBI advocate says: “There is little chance of any immediate conviction in Bihar.”

... contd.