Lalu Yadav gets three-and-a-half years Jail in fodder scam case

Ranchi: Former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav was sentenced to three-and-a half-years in jail and Rs 5 lakh fine by a Ranchi court on Saturday in the fodder scam case in judgement announced via video conferencing. In case of non-payment of fine, Lalu would have to serve an extra six months in jail, the judge said. A three-and-a-half year jail term would mean that bail can only be granted by the High Court.

Lalu, along with 15 others, was convicted in the case on December 23 and has been lodged in the Birsa Munda jail since then. The court had acquitted six others, including another former Bihar chief minister, Jagannath Mishra. Apart from Lalu, convicts Phool Chand, Mahesh Prasad, Bake Julious, Sunil Kumar, Sushil Kumar, Sudhir Kumar and Raja Ram have also been sentenced to three-and-half-years in jail and a Rs 5 lakh fine was imposed. RJD leader Jagdish Sharma got the maximum jail term, seven years, and a fine of Rs 10 lakh was imposed on him.

About the case

This was the second of the five fodder scam cases. It pertained to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from the Deoghar treasury between 1991 and 1994.The court had convicted Prasad for offences of cheating with criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act. The sections carried minimum jail term of one year and maximum of seven years.In 1996, the Patna High Court had ordered an inquiry into the fodder scam cases and a chargesheet in the Deogarh treasury case was filed against 38 people on October 27, 1997. Eleven of them died and three turned approvers while two other accused confessed and were convicted in 2006-07, a CBI official said.On September 30, 2013, Yadav, Jagannath Mishra and several others had been convicted in another case pertaining to illegal withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore from Chaibasa Treasury in the early 1990s. The conviction on December 23 last is the second in the scam. Yadav faces another three fodder scam cases for illegal withdrawal of Rs 3.97 crore from the Dumka Treasury, Rs 36 crore from the Chaibasa Treasury and Rs 184 crore from the Doranda treasury.