VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, March 1: They once lived a king-size life and enjoyed the pride and privilege of being an IAS officer. But they ended as a convict whom the court chastised as bad boys of the notorious fodder scam worth Rs 950 Crore of undivided Bihar whose kingpin is former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration ( Mussoorie) where IAS officers are trained for their future role; they are also taught about one of the fodder scam judgments RC 20A/96. The cases of these old boys of the academy are taught as a case study to warn them not to fall into the trap of their political masters and maintain their integrity while discharging their duty. RC 20A/96 is the first case in which Lalu Prasad Yadav was convicted in 2013.
Corruption is proverbial forbidden fruit and once caught they are sure to be expelled from the paradise of privilege and prestige. The life ends in ignominy
During the prolonged trial of 61 cases of fodder scam (judgment awaited in a few) the court convicted as many as half a dozen bureaucrats. Some of them died disgraced and some of them are languishing in jail. They even could not get the benefit of the gratuity and earned leaves. In some of the cases, the CBI red-flagged their properties.
“They were convicted. They faced humiliation. They have undergone mental agony for the crime they committed. They lost respect,” said a CBI official.
When pickpockets hooted Beck Julius at the court campus
A native of Gumla district of Jharkhand, Beck Julius was the secretary of the Animal Husbandry Department (1994-96). He was convicted in three fodder scam cases. His latest conviction came in RC 47A/96. He was arrested right after the scam was exposed and he spent many months in jail till the time he was granted bail.
“Once he came to court to attend the hearing. Some undertrials were taken to the court by the police for their production in other cases. Among the undertrials were some pickpockets. They recognized Beck Julius and started hooting him in full public glare. ‘Beck when are you coming to stay with us in jail in the next fodder case?’ He was very embarrassed. He had gone to meet his lawyer in Patna. He requested the lawyer to drop him in his car since he was not carrying money. The lawyer snubbed him and said he (Beck Julius) should make his own arrangements,” said the official.
Sajal Chakraborty and his unpublished saga of fodder scam
Sajal Chakraborty was the most loved and haunted bureaucrat of undivided Bihar. The man who was often referred to as people’s bureaucrat died in 2020 as a convict. He was convicted in several cases for his involvement in the scam when he was the deputy commissioner of Chaibasa. He is the story of a spoiled genius with a broken family and broken relationship who twice served as chief secretary of Jharkhand.
During the raid, the CBI is learnt to have seized a notebook from his possession running over 150 pages. He contained information about the ‘whose who’ of the scam. He was planning to write a book on fodder scams. The CBI wondered that when the rest of the accused were destroying evidence, Sajal Chakraborty was drafting evidence against him. During trials of fodder scam cases, he would often joke that a Charachor Federation should be formed.
“He was an eccentric and once he fought with a cop at the court campus as he was not able to go inside the court. The cop retaliated without giving a second thought that he was an IAS,” said a retired official of the agency.
- Arumugam (animal husbandry department secretary (1989-92)
Once a powerful bureaucrat, he was convicted in RC 20A/96. He was accused in other cases but he died in midway. The CBI froze his bank accounts and lockers in Patna.
Convicted in four cases, Phool Chand Singh died before his fifth possible conviction
He functioned as Finance Commissioner of Bihar from 1992 to 1994 and subsequently functioned as Development Commissioner during 1995 – 96. He never questioned inflated budgets and excessive withdrawals of the animal husbandry department. Even the RBI cautioned against heavy withdrawal. He died a few months before the judgment in fodder scam case RC 47A/96 where he was an accused. Similarly, then IAS M.C Subarno died before the judgment.
Sripati Narayan Dubey
An official of engineering service he was promoted as an IAS. In one of the fodder scam cases related to Dumka he was sentenced to four years of imprisonment.
