When jungle raj finally closed in on the Fodder King

Lalu Prasad has been a puzzle for some in politics and many in public. If his entry into in politics was due to Gandhian socialist Jayaprakash Narayan’s influence that was sweeping the nation in the early ’70s and acquired adulthood to become subaltern voice of the Mandal movement which catapulted him to high positions in government, no one seems to be mourning his fate now.

The Bihar animal husbandry department rip-off cases, popularly known as fodder scam, against Lalu are a litany of alleged blatant misuse of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Income Tax department. The former Bihar chief minister exploited compulsions of coalition politics over 17 years to extract maximum out of the willing United Front and Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) governments since 1996 before he was caught up, perhaps, in the law of averages. 

He was convicted to five years’ of jail and imposed a penalty of Rs 25 lakh in one of the six cases he was slapped with by the CBI for fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore from the Chaibasa treasury. Besides, Lalu and his wife Rabri have already been exonerated in a disproportionate assets case that was borne out of the fodder scam. That leaves four other cases against RJD chief that are in various stages of trial in special courts of Patna and Ranchi.

Lalu is alleged to have benefited from leaks of impending raids (a buzz that still remains alive among the officers aware of the fodder scam probe), getting transferred uncompromising officials and counsels, thanks to 'friendly' governments and unprofessional CBI directors.

A book -- “Who owns CBI: The Naked Truth”,  by insider  BR Lall who had served as joint director in the agency -- lends an eye to these worst fears of abuse of the premier investigation agency whose credibility of late has become a subject of ridicule in the political discourse.   The book, a scathing indictment of the investigating agency as it laid bare dirty manipulations in politically sensitive cases,  sums up the fodder scam probe: “So long as the party of the main accused (Lalu) was in power at the Centre, there were efforts to extend due perquisites of the feudal order to him”.

In a chapter, ‘Jungle Raj in CBI,’ author Lall, referring to one of the conversations with then CBI director Joginder Singh, said, “he had exercised all sorts of pressure on (UN) Biswas (who has now become a minister in West Bengal government) in order to frustrate investigations against Laloo Yadav. I reminded him that he had twice transferred Biswas so that case against Laloo could be scuttled…”

Immediately after the UPA came to power in 2004 and powerful ally RJD chief Lalu Prasad was made the railway minister, another round of arm twisting of the justice delivery mechanism began. Out of blue, in July that year, CBI director US Mishra changed counsels handling the fodder cases to strangely appoint Oma Shankar Sharma as a senior special prosecutor, who had quit Delhi police to practice law.

Powerful couple

Around the same time, an Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) knocked off a tax violation case against one of the Bihar’s most powerful couple which eventually led to the weakening of the disproportionate assets prosecution CBI had launched against Lalu and his wife Rabri.

The ruling came after an ITAT member (judicial) RK Tyagi, intriguingly,   was sent on a deputation of two weeks in June 2004 and replaced by P Mohanrajan to promptly hear and decide Rabri Devi's appeal against the sleuths slapping penalty on the alleged tax violation. On July 2 that year, the ITAT, with M K Sarkar as the only other member (accountant), passed an order in favour of the couple, which had left a disturbing question on the brief shifting of Tyagi at the crucial juncture of hearing. 

Another mysterious development that took place in that year was an income tax case slapped against Deepesh Chandak, who happened to be an ‘approver’ in the fodder scam. Chandak was brought under the IT scanner to put him under pressure, which had prompted even the Supreme Court to remark that it appears that “the government wants to protect an important person” and that “the government is changing its colours”.
 
Though Lalu’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had lost considerable bargaining power having taken a beating in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Lalu hung on to the UPA-II, perhaps realising that his game-plan was not yet over. Another bid was made to reshuffle some of the uncompromising members of the investigating team sometime this May, which was three months after Ranjit Kumar Sinha took over as the CBI director.

This time, the Supreme Court, however, stayed Sinha’s decision, that reportedly did not have the backing of his colleagues, to move out four officers -- Asheesh Kumar, Dasrath Murmoo, B K Singh and A K Jha -- on the grounds that they had completed their tenure and the agency had Jharkhand high court go ahead. 

This move of the CBI, whose credibility has taken a beating, did not die without setting tongues wagging as Sinha was associated with fodder scam cases during his earlier stint in the agency as a DIG and even had served in Railway Protection Force DG when Lalu was railway minister. 

Later, other politicians such as former Uttar Pradesh chief ministers Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati also benefited from political alliance. An IT case against Mayawati, dropped by the ITAT, was never challenged in the Delhi court, while the CBI has decided to close the disproportionate assets case against Mulayam. 

Lalu has been punished, but those who helped him subvert the law all these years remain beyond the reach of prosecution.