Fodder scam: justice lags in graft cases

There are positive and negative messages in the Supreme Court’s order reviving the fodder scam cases against former Bihar chief minister and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad. It is good that some cases relating to the infamous corruption scandal, which were thought to have been buried, will be brought back for trial. What is bad is that the cases are still continuing two decades after they were first registered, and but for the Supreme Court they would be dead. The Babri Masjid demolition case in which L K Advani and other senior leaders are involved also had to be similarly revived. Cases like the Jayalalithaa disproportionate assets case took decades to reach final decisions. Most corruption cases that involve politicians and senior officials take a long time for closure. Very often the accused are acquitted and sometimes they pass away even while the trial is on. When the law seems to prevail in some cases, that is a matter of cheer and hope.

Lalu was convicted in one case for fraudulent withdrawal of money from one treasury. The scam involved withdrawal of over Rs 900 crore from various treasuries on the pretext of buying fodder for cattle. Though he served term in jail in one case, a possible nexus between the investigation, prosecution and even the judiciary might have helped him to avoid conviction in other cases. This is what the Supreme Court has exposed now. The court has struck down the order of the Jharkhand High Court judge who wrongly invoked the principle that a person cannot be tried for the same offence in two cases. This was only to spare Lalu because the same judge had taken a different position in another fodder scam case. The court strongly censured the CBI, too, for its deliberate attempt to scuttle the case. It took 222 days for the CBI to challenge the high court judgment instead of the permissible 90 days.

It is clear that the system was manipulated and many rules and procedures were misused to let Lalu off many hooks. The court has said that the trial in all cases should be completed within nine months. Hopefully, the law will catch up with the offenders and justice will be done. Whether Lalu and the other accused are convicted or not, it is important that the due course of justice is not short-circuited and compromised. The case, in fact, has implications that go beyond the trial, conviction and personal fate of Lalu. Its outcome will have political consequences within Bihar and outside, especially if Lalu is convicted again. That adds to the significance of the case.