Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nitin Naveen took the opportunity to target Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and raised doubts on whether attempts were being made to protect Yadav, who is the chief of the Rashtriya Janata Dal. Kumar's Janata Dal (United) is in power in Bihar in alliance with the RJD and the Congress. "Nitish Kumar should tell how and why he is protecting Lalu Prasad. The files have gone missing, and that is affecting the future of Bihar," the Bankipur MLA said.
The fodder scam involves the fraudulent withdrawal of around Rs 950 crore from the treasuries of undivided Bihar by the Animal Husbandry Department, when Yadav was the chief minister from 1990 to 1997. AHD officials, in connivance with suppliers and the top brass of the state’s bureaucracy and politicians, withdrew money using fake bills and vouchers to buy feed, fodder and medicine for livestock.
A special CBI court in Ranchi had convicted Yadav and 44 others in 2013 in one of the fodder scam cases related to the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore from the treasury of Chaibasa (now in Jharkhand) in 1994-95. The Supreme Court had granted the RJD chief bail the same year.
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