FINAL HEARING IN FODDER SCAM CASE DEFERRED

RANCHI: Final hearing in the biggest fodder scam case involving Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad and others, that moved a step ahead on February 26 after a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court closed the trial stage of examination of defence witnesses, was deferred to March 9 in wake of some lawyers testing positive for Covid-19, officials said on Tuesday.

“Physical hearing in the Ranchi court was suspended this week. Therefore, arguments didn’t commence in the aforesaid fodder scam case on Tuesday. It will start on March 9,” said senior advocate BMP Singh, representing the CBI.

The trial was previously scheduled to commence on March 2.

According to Singh, the commencement of final argument stage indicated that the case would attain finality soon. “We are expecting judgment in this case in two to three months, considering limited functioning of courts due Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.

Way back in 1996, the CBI registered as many as 53 separate cases involving fraudulent withdrawal of varied amount of public money from various government treasuries over fictitious spends on fodder and other expenses for cattle.

Of the 53 scam cases, the aforesaid case, numbering RC 47 (A)/96, was related to fraudulent withdrawal of ₹139.35 crore from Ranchi’s Doranda treasury during 1995-96.

This was the biggest scam case as it involved the largest number of accused (170), highest amount of defalcation money (₹139 crore) and highest number of prosecution witnesses (585).

The CBI filed charge sheets against as many as 170 accused in the case, but 70 of them, including former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra, died during the course of trial.

Currently, only 110 accused, including Prasad, were facing trial.