RANCHI (TIP): CBI special judge Pravas Kumar Sinha, who delivered the verdict in the fodder scam, described corruption as omnipresent and a great threat to the society. He said corruption was growing menacingly even as the concerned agencies have taken constructive measures against it in his landmark 568- page judgment. “Corruption… has spread like cancer, which, if not detected in time, is sure to (make the country’s polity) malignant,” the judgment said. “… political corruption increases when control on the activities of the public administrators is fragile and the division of power between political actors and the bureaucrats as well as between the government and the middle men is not clear.” The judge referred to the 45 accused in the case, including RJD chief Lalu Prasad convicted on September 30, and said high level politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen “connived and entered into a criminal conspiracy for fraudulent withdrawal of public money.” He said they forged several documents “in virtually making a loot of public money with only one hidden agenda of siphoning the public money from government treasury by fraudulent withdrawal.”

The judge said those at the helm forget the popular saying “dharmo rakshati rakshitaha (if we protect dharma, dharma will protect us).” “If we protect law, law will protect us. To put differently, if we do not protect law, law will not protect us.” The judgment referred to Jurassic Park, saying if it is allowed to grow further, lawlessness will be the law. The judge praised CBI DSP AK Jha and special CBI public prosecutor B M P Singh for the collection of evidence, which required “patience, vision and a volume of courage during the investigation”. It said the prosecution was required to move diligently in the course of the trial and in preparation of the judgment of about 568 pages. “… the entire team of my court worked day and night … we came on every Sunday and holidays for arranging the exhibits, so I cannot depart with the judgment without giving special appreciation to them.”