Fodder scam case: Lalu, Jagannath awarded 5 year jail term

Ranchi: Former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has been awarded five year jail term along with Jagannath Mishra in the third fodder scam case on Wednesday.

A fine of Rs 5 Lakh each has also been imposed on the guilty.

Quantum of sentence in the case was announced by the special CBI court in Ranchi who held the RJD chief guilty in the case that relates to the Chaibasa Treasury along with former Bihar CM Jagannath Mishra.

The special Central Bureau of Investigation court of Judge SS Prasad pronounced the judgment related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 33.67 crore from the Chaibasa Treasury in 1992-1993.

It was alleged that the Rs 33.67-crore was withdrawn on fake allotment letters.

The special CBI court convicted five persons and acquitted six in this case. This is third case of fodder scam in which Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad has been convicted and now while the RJD chief stands convicted in three cases, the judgement in the remaining two is likely to be delivered soon.

Lalu's son and former deputy CM of Bihar Tejashwi Yadav has, however, stated that he he would approach higher courts against all the verdict pronounced to the RJD head.

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After the judgement came, Tejashwi said, "People know how BJP,RSS and more importantly Nitish Kumar have conspired against Lalu ji. We will approach higher courts against all these verdicts."

Bihar deputy CM Sushil Modi also came in-front of the media stating that there was no conspiracy and it was an expected judgement. "Its nothing surprising, it was expected. The statements coming from RJD are unfortunate, do they mean to say the judge is conspiring with BJP and Nitish ji," he said.

It is to be mentioned that in the first fodder scam case, he was convicted in 2013 and awarded five years’ imprisonment.