Twenty - one years ago, on January 27, 1996, a raid on the offices of the Animal Husbandry department in Chaibasa unearthed the Rs 950 - crore fodder scam that embroiled then Bihar chief minister Lalu Yadav in a lifelong tussle with the CBI.
Large - scale embezzlement of government treasury funds given to non - existent companies for purchase and supply of cattle fodder in Bihar in the 1990s was the highlight of this scam.
The fodder scam started with small - scale embezzlement done by low level government employees to show transfer of some fake funds. When it grew, it also started to include businesses and politicians, increasing the amount of money embezzled. The then Comptroller and Auditor General of India, TN Chaturvedi, noticed delays in submissions of monthly accounts of the Bihar treasury and warned of possible laundering of funds in 1985. The Animal Husbandry department had made fraudulent withdrawals of big bills of Rs 1, 000 crore in the name of medicines during the chief ministerial tenure of Lalu Yadav. However, the raid only happened in 1996.
Source: Indian Express