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In Kerala state of India, the previous government spent INR 35 lakhs (3.5 millions) as court/advocate/legal fees for a corruption case in which a minister was involved.
The source of that fees is naturally the taxes paid by the people.
Is it legal to do this? Can the government use taxpayers' money in such scenarios?
At the level of abstraction you're describing it, it doesn't sound odious.
Even if you're personally honest, if you accept public office, you're going to risk being accused of misconduct -- for example, by political opponents who disagree with your policy choices and hope to get rid of you by alleging personal faults. There's a good argument that if the state didn't have a policy of defending its officials against such accusations, it would be difficult to get honest, competent administrators to agree to hold office.
Thus, even though such a policy might benefit a crook from time to time, having it in the first place would still serve the public interest, and hence a be justifiable use of public money.
(Providing a solid defense becomes more important the easier it is for accusations of official misconduct to be made -- but this ease is itself a public good).
