Supreme Court Verdict On Dropping Of Charges Against Lalu Yadav In Fodder Scam Today

NEW DELHI:  The Supreme Court will today pronounce its verdict on a plea by the CBI opposing the dropping of charges against Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav by the Jharkhand High Court in the fodder scam case. In 2014, the Jharkhand High Court had given relief to the former Bihar Chief Minister and others by dropping charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and prevention of corruption. The court had quashed the cases on the grounds that a person convicted in one case could not be tried in similar cases based on same witnesses and evidences. However, the CBI had contended that though the cases have arisen from fodder scam, they are different in nature as different amounts were involved from different treasuries. The Supreme Court had heard arguments by Mr Yadav's lawyer Ram Jethmalani and the CBI had reserved its order on April 20. The former chief minister of Bihar had been charged in several cases related to the scam, in which Rs. 900 crores were embezzled from the state exchequer for fictitious medicines and fodder for cattle over a period of 20 years. The matter came to light in 1996. In October 2013, Mr Yadav was convicted in one of the cases - on charges of embezzling Rs. 37 crore. But he received bail in December 2013 from the Supreme Court. Over 50 cases were registered for embezzlement of funds on the pretext of buying fodder for cattle, among others.