Indian politician Lalu Prasad to be tried in all cases of multi-million fodder scam

A senior Indian politician from the eastern state of Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, would face criminal cases in all four fodder scam cases he was named in, officials said Monday.

The order to initiate criminal conspiracy charges against the Rashtriya Janata Dal party chief was given by India's Supreme Court on Monday.

The top court set aside Jharkhand High Court order which had dropped conspiracy charges against Yadav in the cases.

"The Supreme Court today ordered initiation of criminal conspiracy charges against Lalu Prasad Yadav in the fodder scam cases. The court allowed the appeal filed by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) opposing the dropping of criminal conspiracy charges against the former Bihar chief minister," an official said.

The CBI is India's premier investigating agency.

In 2014, the Jharkhand high court had given relief to the convicts in fodder scam by dropping the charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and prevention of corruption. The high court had quashed the cases on the grounds that a person convicted in one case could not be tried in similar cases based on same witnesses and evidence.

The much-publicized fodder scam in India relates to fraudulent withdrawal of money meant to purchase fodder for animals by Bihar Animal Husbandry Department in 1996, when Lalu was the chief minister.

The CBI had registered a number of cases against Yadav and other top officials for embezzlement of funds worth millions of U.S. dollars on the pretext of buying fodder for the cattle.

After the CBI issued an arrest warrant for Yadav, he had to resign from the post of chief minister. Subsequently, he installed his wife Rabri Devi as Bihar chief minister then.

Yadav, who had also served as the federal railways minister, denied the charge and said he had been falsely implicated.

Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal party is currently part of the coalition government headed by Nitish Kumar in Bihar. Endit