Hall of Shame

Several glaring cases of misgovernance, corruption and crime have shamed Bihar over the years.

Several glaring cases of crime, corruption and misgovernance have shamed Bihar over the years.

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Fodder scam
Perhaps the most infamous of the several corruption exposures that have rocked India in the last decade, the fodder scam involves at least three Bihar chief ministers besides a slew of top state officials. Funds to the tune of Rs 950 crore were withdrawn illegally from the state animal husbandry department, and billed for purchase of fodder, medicine and instruments against contingency bills. The withdrawals allegedly began in 1978 and continued until 1996. If this is true, the fodder scam could also be the longest-running scam in Indian history.

Lalu Prasad Yadav had to resign as chief minister in July 1997 after being accused in the scam. He surrendered before the CBI, but nominated his wife Rabri Devi as his successor. Lalu has been jailed for brief periods several times since, and Rabri too has been named as involved in the scam. Former chief minister Jagannath Mishra was put behind bars for his involvement. Several IAS officers, including ministerial secretaries, and scores of middle-ranking state officials have also been charged.

Indeed, the list of accused could be longer. According to an accused IAS officer, two more former chief ministers - Bhagwat Jha Azad and SN Sinha - were also directly involved. Other secretaries and some state judges have also been named, and the CBI has been accused of bias for not proceeding against them.

Satyendra Dubey murder case
Thirty-one-year-old IIT graduate Satyendra Dubey, working with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and posted to the then prime minister AB Vajpayee's pet project, the Golden Quadrilateral, was murdered on November 27, 2003 in Bihar's Gaya district.

The CBI has arrested four "robbers" and claimed that the murder was a simple case of roadside robbery, but many believe that Dubey was murdered for exposing the powerful land mafia in the state. Working on the project as technical manager at Kodarma in Jharkhand, Dubey had written a letter to the Prime Minister's Office, highlighting corruption and even naming some culprits. In the letter, he had also requested that his name be kept secret.

However, the PMO did not conceal his identity and circulated the letter in the bureaucracy - along with his name. A year after the PMO received the letter, Dubey was murdered. Prior to his murder, he had been receiving threatening calls. He had also written to the NHAI, saying that he feared for his life. Both the Bihar government and the NHAI have washed their hands off the case, and have even released newspaper advertisements blaming each other for the murder.

DP Ojha's sacking
The Bihar government unceremoniously sacked controversial Director General of Police DP Ojha on December 6, 2003 - a moved that raised many an eyebrow. Ojha had been openly critical of Bihar's political brass and had decried its "criminal links". At a fair in Chapra just a week before his sacking, he had spoken against state politicians in general, and against ruling party MP Md Shahabuddin in particular.

He later told HindustanTimes.com that he had also submitted a report to the state government asking for a CBI probe against the MP, alleging that he was a criminal, had been involved in buying powerful arms like AK-47 assault rifles, and was linked to the ISI. The report also referred to Shahabuddin's "unaccounted" properties in Bihar and elsewhere. After his sacking, Ojha did not accept any new posting and began a campaign against the Rabri government.

The Gangaajal episode
Supporters of Bihar chief Minister Rabri Devi's brother and Gopalganj MLA (now MP) Sadhu Yadav vandalised two Patna cinema halls and beat up people on a Friday early last September. Reason: the halls were screening the new movie Gangaajal, whose villain was also named Sadhu Yadav. The real Yadav - himself involved in several criminal cases - and his supporters claimed this amounted to defamation, and pledged not to allow the film's screening anywhere in the state.

It was only a week later, after filmmaker Prakash Jha held a special screening for Rabri Devi and her husband Lalu Yadav and made it clear that the fictional Sadhu bore little resemblance to the real, that the film's release was sanctioned. Sadhu Yadav, who didn't attend the special screening, too later conceded that he watched the movie on VCD and found nothing "objectionable" in it.

But the film also rekindled memories of an earlier blot on Bihar's history - the pouring of acid (sarcastically named gangaajal or the water of the holy Ganga) into the eyes of local goons by police officers in Bhagalpur in 1979-80. The victims were all backwards and Dalits. Most of them are now dead, and their cases are still pending in courts.