Fodder scam and Lalu Prasad Yadav: 5 things you need to know

What is this case about?  The case is regarding the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore from Chaibasa treasury in the early 1990s. Lalu was Chief Minister when the allegation that Rs 37.7 crore was allegedly withdrawn by producing fake bills. He quit the chief minister’s post in 1997 when his name figured in the CBI investigations in the scam, which surfaced in 1996. With this is the Rs 950 crore fodder scam over? No. Special courts have already pronounced judgements in 44 out of the 53 cases related to the scam. This is the verdict in the 45th case and there are other cases still pending. Lalu Prasad and Jagannath Mishra are accused in five cases. [caption id=“attachment_1141973” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Lalu Prasad was present in court today. PTI[/caption] Who are the other accused in the case apart from Lalu? Besides fodder suppliers, other accused in this case are IAS officers Mahesh Prasad, Phoolchand Singh, Beck Juleus, K Armugam and Income Tax officer A C Choudhary. Former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra, former Bihar AHD Minister Vidya Sagar Nishar, R K Rana and Dhruv Bhagat were among the accused in this case. There were a total of 56 accused in the case. But during the trial, seven accused died, two turned approvers, one admitted to the crime and one was discharged. When did the investigations in the case begin? The Patna High Court had on 11 March, 1996 passed an order to transfer the investigations of the Rs 950 crore fodder scam cases to the Central Bureau of Investigations. What happened during the course of the trial?  On 5 April, 2000 charges against all the accused were framed by CBI. By December, 2000, as many as 47 witnesses were examined. A total of 350 witnesses were examined on behalf of the prosecution and it closed its case on 2 January, 2012. Lalu Prasad moved the Jharkhand High Court and later the Supreme Court, 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 special court. with inputs from agencies