March 9, 1998

The CBI has pursued fodder scam-accused Sajal Chakraverty for six months now but is unable to find the man who moves about freely in Patna

By Bharat Desai and Sanjay Kumar Jha

They thought he would never be able to hide anywhere for long. That massive girth -- all 170 kg of it -- would surely give him away, they felt. But six months down the line, the CBI has been unable to nab Bihar's colourful IAS officer, Sajal Chakraverty, an accused in the multi-crore fodder scam.

When Chakraverty, former deputy commissioner of Chaibasa, evaded arrest in July last year and went into hiding, the investigating agency was confident of arresting him soon. "How can he hide from us? He is so big, some part of his body would always stick out somewhere," a CBI official had laughed. Six months later, it's Chakraverty who seems to be laughing. On the run, travelling deep into the countryside, catching a bite at dhabas, sleeping in motels across states, he is proving to be a particularly slippery customer for the CBI.

The 41-year-old Chakraverty -- with a penchant for flying planes and keeping thoroughbred horses -- has now begun to cock a snook at the authorities: he gets himself photographed outside the Patna High Court, the CBI headquarters and even a police checkpost in Patna. "let my days as an absconder be counted," says the irrepressible bureaucrat. "Let each day prove that the CBI is not only malicious and unprofessional but also incompetent." He loves to hold forth on the agency's weaknesses. "Its (CBI's) job is basically paperwork, I wouldn't have been free for so long had the local police been involved in tracking me down." His interaction with the police in the past has kept him one up on those in his pursuit. "I can predict their moves and that makes it easier to evade arrest," he says with a touch of over-confidence. And the CBI, which won accolades for the way it arrested over 50 persons alleged to be involved in the fodder scam, including former chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav and four IAS officers, is at its wit's end.

But it's only the CBI which has difficulty in finding him. Lawyers in Patna routinely meet him and so do a handful of journalists, whom he calls up himself. He does not reveal his contact number or whereabouts to anyone and is suspicious of strangers. Those who have met him say that Chakraverty is shifty, forever glancing around furtively. But once his apprehensions are allayed, he boasts about his numerous tiffs with Laloo and his rather stormy relationship with CBI officials, who first tried to win him over to get details about the fodder scam and then chargesheeted him along with 54 others in the main case.

Two broken marriages and a host of medical problems, including diabetes, haven't crushed his spirit. "I don't mind facing the courts and I have finally found a very good lawyer who has agreed to fight the case free of cost, but I am just not willing to go to jail for no fault of mine," he says. Chakraverty, in fact, is the only district head of administration in Bihar to have been chargesheeted in the scam and he feels he has been singled out for persecution.

His clashes with Laloo are legion. Patna folklore has it that during the 1995 Assembly election campaign, the then chief minister got annoyed with Chakraverty because he hadn't placed a food packet in his helicopter during Laloo's visit to Chaibasa. As the deputy commissioner of Chaibasa, Chakraverty started a series of clubs in the district: a flying club, horse-riding club, a boat club and a rifle club -- hobbies he was himself hooked to because both his father and brother were in the Army. Such activities led Laloo to place him under suspension, only to revoke it a few days later without framing any charges. Then of course came the much-publicised incident in June 1997 when, at the height of the fodder scam, Chakraverty gate-crashed into the chief minister's residence in Patna and had a wordy duel with Laloo over the delay in his promotion. And much to the surprise of his colleagues, he got the promotion a week later.

It was his reputation as a person who could take on the might of Laloo that perhaps encouraged the CBI to keep him in good humour and attempt to draw out details about the chief minister's involvement in the fodder scam. "They thought because there was a lot of bad blood between me and Laloo, I would blurt out everything. I was also offered a clean chit if I gave evidence of Laloo's direct involvement with the mafia." His refusal to cooperate, he says, led to CBI raids on his houses in Ranchi and Patna.

According to the CBI charge-sheet, Chakraverty was aware of excess withdrawals by the state's animal husbandry department because he had attended a meeting in Patna where a withdrawal of Rs 50 lakh was brought to his notice. The fact that he nominated one of the main accused in the scam as secretary of the Blue Cross Society in Chaibasa has also been mentioned in the charge-sheet. But Chakraverty brushes these charges aside. "It was only logical to nominate the animal husbandry officer as secretary of the organisation which was supposed to take care of animals," he says. Chakraverty also shot off a letter to the then CBI director Joginder Singh, demanding action against Joint Director U.N. Biswas, who was investigating the scandal, for trying to implicate him in the case. "What I found distressing was that officials in districts which had reported more irregularities than Chaibasa were being spared, whereas I was being targeted," he says, obviously believing he is the injured party. To top it all, Chakraverty was once again placed under suspension in November last year for unauthorised absence from duty and has not drawn his salary for the past seven months.

He decided to run away from his problems and the law. He has been on the road for a long time now and mostly travels in a car. "I can't travel by bus, train or air because I will be spotted; the tinted glasses in my car offer me all the protection I need," says Chakraverty. It's been a huge grind, travelling to villages on the Orissa coast and spending days on board fishing trawlers just to escape attention. "It was much cheaper than staying in motels or dhabas; the poor fishermen never charged me for anything," he says. He has even got a fake identity card, saying he is a schoolteacher from East Africa. Chakraverty now claims to know the countryside of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa like his own backyard because he normally goes off the beaten track, even parking his vehicle in the jungles at night.

Bulky books on the CRPC, IPC, Evidence Act and the Prevention of Corruption Act keep him constant company. "They are my Bibles, Ramayans and Gitas." Chakraverty also keeps some books on aviation -- reminder of better days when he was a pilot cadet in the Indian Air Force, chief of the Jamshedpur Flying Club and holder of a private flying licence.

With all his bravado and well-planned moves, Chakraverty's problems are catching up with him. Leading the life of a fugitive is taking its toll and he has developed hypertension and eating disorders. His inability to stick to diet restrictions has increased his blood sugar level and his hernia problem has worsened. His doctor -- he always keeps in touch with him -- has advised surgery. But Chakraverty is adamant. "Life in police custody will kill me sooner than my numerous health problems," he says rather dramatically. The defiant bureaucrat refuses to take the easy road to justice -- because it leads to jail.

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