The Ranchi Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Monday sentenced RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav to 5 years in prison and fined Rs 60 lakh in connection with the fodder scam case of 139 crores, news agency ANI reported.
Speaking to reporters publishing the verdict of the CBI special court, RJD leader and Lalu's son Tejashwi Yadav said, "I will not comment on the court's verdict. This is not the last judgement. The High Court and Supreme Court are there. We have challenged it in the High Court and we hope that the decision of the lower court will be changed in the High Court."
He also added, “Apart from the fodder scam, it seems that no scams has happened in the country. In Bihar, almost 80 scams have happened, but where are CBI, ED, NIA? In the country there is only one scam and one leader? CBI chief forgotten Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi."
Lalu Yadav was declared guilty on February 15, 2022. Of the 99 defendants in the case, 24 were acquitted, while three-year prison sentences were pronounced for 46 accused.
Yadav has been found guilty of illegal withdrawals of Rs 139.35 crore from Doranda treasury by a special CBI court in Ranchi of Jharkhand.
The leader of the RJD was convicted in four cases of fodder scam. This case (RC 47A/97) was the fifth and final and largest case involving a fodder scam in which 139 crore 35 lakh was illegally withdrawn. The Rs 950 crore scam is linked to the fraudulent withdrawal of public funds from public treasuries in various districts of undivided Bihar.
Of the original 170 accused in this case, 55 have died, 7 have become government witnesses, 2 have accepted the charges against them and six are absconding.
The scam comes to light after a raid by Chaibasa Deputy Commissioner Amit Khare on the Animal Husbandry Department in January 1996. The Patna High Court cornered CBI in March 1996 after mounting pressure to investigate the case. The CBI registers an FIR in the case at the time when both Bihar and Jharkhand were a unified state.
In June 1997, Lalu Prasad was first named as an accused in the case in the indictment filed by the CBI. Following the indictment and growing pressure from the opposition, Lalu resigned as prime minister, after which he appointed his wife Rabri Devi as chief minister of the state and quietly controlled Bihar politics in July 1997.
Due to the bifurcation of Bihar and the formation of a new state, Jharkhand, the case was transferred to the High Court of Jharkhand in October 2001. The CBI Special Court begins the trial in the case of fodder scam from February 2002. Prasad's first conviction came in September. 2013, in Chaibasa Treasury case related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.70 crore. He was sentenced to five years in prison, which led to his disqualification from Lok Sabha membership. The Supreme Court granted him bail in December of that year.
The trouble of RJD supremo was renewed again in 2017 when a special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) convicted him in December 2017 in the second scam case related to the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh of the Deoghar treasury. Prasad was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison in this case. However, he was released on bail in July last year after serving half of the 3.5-years' sentence.
The former Chief Minister's third conviction came in January 2018, in the Chaibasa Treasury case related to the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 33.13 crore. In this case, he was sentenced to five years in prison. Two months later, the CBI Special Court in March 2018 found Prasad guilty of conspiracy and corruption in the fraud case relating to the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 3.76 crore from Dumka's treasury from December 1995, to January 1996. It had handed him 14 years in prison and fined Rs 60 lakh on him.
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