Fodder scam: Lalu's lawyer blames CBI for implicating client

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Prabhat Kumar, the lawyer representing Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad Yadav, in the fodder scam case, on Monday blamed the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) for implicating his client.

"His case is very strong. Neither is there any direct evidence nor any documentary evidence. On his (Lalu's) orders only 41 cases of fodder scam were filed. The CBI has charged him," said Kumar.

He said the high court has rejected two of their petitions, one of the transfer and the other one of asking for extra time to go through the documents.

"One was the transfer petition and the other one which we filed was under the provision 311 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CRPC) to give us some more time to collect evidence. But both were rejected and we have been given time duration of 10 days to conclude. Now we will take out its certified copy to see whether it can go to the Supreme Court or not," he added.

Yadav is one of the 46 accused persons in the fodder scam case, pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs. 377 million from Chaibasa Treasury in Singhbhum district of Bihar between 1992 and 1995.

The fodder scam also known as "Chara Ghotala" involved the alleged embezzlement of about Rs. 9.5 billion from a Bihar Government treasury.

The alleged theft spanned many years, and many Bihar state government administrative and elected officials across multiple administrations were engaged in it, and were involved in the fabrication of "vast herds of fictitious livestock" for which fodder, medicines and animal husbandry equipment was supposedly procured.

The fodder scam was unearthed in Bihar in 1996 when Lalu Prasad was the Chief Minister of the state. He had resigned from the post in 1997 after a court issued an arrest warrant against him in connection with one of the cases.