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Updated: Jun 09, 2016 06:50 IST

PATNA: Nearly 500 files claimed to be related to the multi-crore fodder scam, in which former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav was convicted, have reportedly been stolen from Bihar secretariat.

The theft took place despite police increasing security in the state following an input from intelligence agencies regarding a possible terrorist attack in Bihar.

A 50-page FIR has been lodged against unknown persons at Sachivalaya police station on the basis of section officer Satyendra Kumar’s statement.

Police said the secretariat employees found the locks of the two cupboards in which the files were kept broken and the files missing.

Sachivalaya DSP Ashok Kumar Choudhary said most of the stolen files pertained to various high court cases, including one involving Jagdish Sharma, a fodder scam suspect.

However, animal husbandry minister Awadhesh Kumar Singh denied that the files were related to the infamous fodder scam.

He said a three member panel had been set up to inquire into the matter.

This is the second such incident in a span of four years.

Following the incident, BJP leaders slammed the state’s Grand Alliance government and accused it of being involved in a conspiracy.

“The reports suggest that the files were related to fodder scam and there could be a conspiracy, which must be unraveled,” said BJP state chief Mangal Pandey. Union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy too asked for a probe to find out if the files were linked to the fodder scam.

RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav, currently out on bail, was convicted in the scam in 2014. The fodder scam involves the fraudulent withdrawal public money to the tune of ` 950 crore from the treasuries of undivided Bihar by the Animal Husbandry Department, when the RJD chief was the chief minister.

In October 16, 2012 altogether 11 hard disks were stolen from the office of the welfare department located on the secretariat premises.