This is not new to him, he has been there, done that. And he is not worried. Former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav, whose Rashtriya Janata Dal is majority partner in the Bihar government, flew to Ranchi on June 16 to appear before a special CBI court to answer questions regarding the huge fodder scam of the 1990s when he was CM.
His lawyer had asked for exemption from personal appearance, but the court had rejected the plea. So he went.
The scam amounted to Rs 1,000 crore – small compared to the scams unearthed these days, but huge in those times – was about the money withdrawn by Lalu’s the Animal Husbandry department from various districts and shown to be for strange objectives, such as oil to polish the cows’ horns.
The current investigation, as per media reports, is about the illegal withdrawal of Rs 95 lakh from the Deogarh treasury.
Also called was another former chief minister Jagannath Mishra, also an accused. However, the court, considered his absence on health grounds and allowed his lawyer to represent him.
The Supreme Court has reopened the fodder scam case. Lalu was convicted in October 2013 by a CBI court, but Lalu had got a stay on that order from the Jharkhand High Court.
—India Legal Bureau