It began with numbers on a ledger and ended in a political earthquake. For many Indians, the 1990s were the decade they first heard and understood the word "scam". A Rs 950 crore embezzlement drained state funds meant for cattle, exposed a corrupt nexus of officials and politicians and brought down one of the state's most powerful leaders, Lalu Prasad Yadav.
In 1985, the then Comptroller and Auditor General of India, TN Chaturvedi, noticed delays in the submission of monthly accounts by the Bihar treasury and warned of possible fund laundering.
In 1992, Bidhu Bhushan Dvivedi, a police inspector with the state's anti-corruption vigilance unit, submitted a detailed report outlining the scam and involvement of high-level officials, including Chief Minister Lalu Yadav.
Mr Dvivedi was first suspended and later reinstated as a witness during the trial.
Fodder Scam Of 1990s
The scandal truly erupted in December 1995, when VS Dubey, Bihar's Finance Commissioner, while reviewing departmental accounts, discovered troubling discrepancies.
The Animal Husbandry Department, responsible for purchasing livestock and fodder, had withdrawn Rs 255.33 crore, against an approved allocation of only Rs 10.50 crore for the period 1993-1996.
The discovery opened Pandora's box. Fraudulent withdrawals across treasuries in Ranchi, Chaibasa, Dumka, Gumla, and Jamshedpur had ballooned to nearly Rs 410 crore.
Suppliers, hand-in-glove with officials enjoying political cover, submitted forged bills for transporting buffaloes, pigs, and goats hundreds of kilometres in vehicles ranging from scooters to oil tankers.
One bill claimed Rs 15 lakh for 500 kg of mustard oil, ostensibly to polish the horns of buffaloes. Another declared that pigs purchased from Ludhiana had died en route at Varanasi. The investigation revealed it was a white lie.
Lalu Yadav's Role In The Fodder Scam
Lalu Prasad Yadav was at the centre of it all. For a long time, he remained a popular face among the state's marginalised, who saw his rise as their own.
The fodder scam, also known as chara ghotala, transformed his image from a folk hero to a symbol of systemic corruption. In 1997, after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) named him in its probe, he resigned as Chief Minister and was replaced by his wife, Rabri Devi.
That same year, Lalu Yadav founded the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which remained a dominant political force in Bihar until losing power in the 2005 state elections.
The scam eventually grew into 53 separate cases, with over 500 individuals, including bureaucrats, politicians, and suppliers, named. Lalu Prasad Yadav and former Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra were accused in multiple cases.
The CBI-led trials spanned decades. Over 200 witnesses deposed, and seven accused died during the proceedings.
In 2006, a court acquitted Lalu Yadav and Rabri Devi in a case alleging the collection of wealth disproportionate to their income. In September 2013, Lalu Yadav was convicted for fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore from the Chaibasa treasury.
The Legal Saga Continued
In February 2022, a special CBI court in Ranchi convicted Lalu Yadav in the fifth fodder scam case, involving fraudulent withdrawals of Rs 139.35 crore from the Doranda treasury.
He was sentenced to five years in prison and fined Rs 60 lakh, though he was granted bail by the Jharkhand High Court later that year. The CBI challenged this bail, seeking a harsher sentence.
In July 2025, the Jharkhand High Court admitted the CBI's plea, which seeks to increase his sentence to the maximum of seven years.
