"Some of those who were petitioners then are now back with Lalu," Nitish Kumar said
As Lalu Yadav was sentenced in the fifth fodder scam case today, his rival-turned-ally-turned rival Nitish Kumar said when the massive corruption case was first registered, he had refused to be part of it.
The Bihar Chief Minister said he was asked by his then party (Samata Party) chief George Fernandes -- who went on to become Defence Minister in the BJP-led government at the Centre between 1998 and 2004 -- to sign the petition seeking a probe but he refused.
"When they filed the case they came to me too. I clearly told them if you want to file a case then do but it was not my job," he said, without naming anyone.
Mr Fernandes then flew down Shivanand Tiwari, who was in Delhi, to Patna to put his name down as one of the complainants in the case.
Mr Tiwari is now part of Lalu Yadav's RJD.
He was the petitioner along with Rajiv Ranjan or Lalan Singh, who is the national president of Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United.
"Some of those who were petitioners then are now back with Lalu," Mr Kumar said, taking a swipe at Mr Tiwari.
But he admitted that some were also in his party. "Everyone together filed the cases against Lalu Yadav. It is a different matter now that they are all in different camps now," said the Bihar Chief Minister.
Nitish Kumar, too, had a short-lived alliance with Lalu Yadav in 2015. The alliance crashed before term as the Chief Minster switched allies and took power with the BJP.
The 950-crore fodder scam involved large-scale corruption in which funds meant for animal fodder were embezzled from multiple government treasuries across undivided Bihar. The Animal Husbandry Department allegedly issued fake bills to facilitate the scam.
The corruption was discovered by then Chaibasa Deputy Commissioner Amit Khare in 1996, when Lalu Yadav was in power.
Lalu Yadav was made an accused for the first time in June 1997, in a chargesheet filed by the CBI. When he was forced to resign, he installed his wife Rabri Devi as a proxy.
In the 22-year trial, 55 accused died and six are still missing.