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New Delhi, Oct 26 (IANS) Apart from the pressure inside the CBI to “spare” Lalu Prasad Yadav in the fodder scam, former CBI joint director Upendra Nath Biswas on Sunday recalled how the Congress had hatched a failed political conspiracy behind the scenes to save its key ally and RJD chief from arrest in the Rs 950 crore scam.
“The Congress put pressure on then Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda to stop him from arresting Lalu Prasad Yadav in the scam. When it failed in its objective, the Congress withdrew support to his government,” said 84-year-old Biswas, who joined politics after retirement and served as a minister in the West Bengal government.
In an exclusive interview with IANS, the retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer also criticized the full support given by the Congress to Lalu Prasad Yadav during the controversial investigation in the mid-1990s.
“Lalu Prasad Yadav was pressurizing the central government to save him from being arrested in the scam. He went to his mentor and then Congress president Sitaram Kesri with a request to withdraw support from the central government. And Kesri obliged,” Biswas said, crediting the close monitoring of courts for the CBI’s success in securing convictions in 75 cases related to the scam.
The former CBI officer said that it was Congress President Kesri who advised Lalu Prasad Yadav to resign and make Rabri Devi the new Chief Minister of Bihar.
Sharing insider details of the hectic goings-on in the corridors of power in Delhi when the CBI was registering cases in the fodder scam, the former CBI investigator said, “In his desperation to avoid arrest, Lalu Prasad Yadav even approached the next Prime Minister IK Gujral with a plea to control me. But PM Gujral said ‘I am sorry’.”
The retired CBI officer also recalled the efforts made by the then Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav to avoid arrest.
“The Supreme Court ordered the arrest of Lalu Prasad Yadav. We had full power, and we went to his house. But they put a cordon of local police around his house and we were not allowed inside,” he said, recalling the dramatic overnight sequence.
He said that an attempt was also made by the CBI officers to take the help of the Army to enter the Chief Minister’s residence. “The Army said we want it in writing. The Army also tried to contact the High Court judge who had approved taking their help for the arrest, but Army officials could not contact the judge.”
Lalu Prasad Yadav was later arrested with the help of Bihar Police on July 29–30, 1997, a development which had a lasting negative impact on the career of the veteran politician.
The fodder scam came to light during 1990–91 and 1995–96. As part of this, officials of the erstwhile Bihar Animal Husbandry Department, in connivance with unscrupulous suppliers and others, siphoned off and siphoned off hundreds of crores of rupees in the name of making payments to suppliers who had submitted fake/fake bills misrepresenting the supply of feed, fodder and veterinary drugs.
It was further alleged that the amount withdrawn was ultimately misused. During the investigation, the role of bureaucrats, politicians including the then Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo and Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and others came to light.
–IANS
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