A special CBI Court in Ranchi has sentenced former Chief Minister of Bihar and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav to five years imprisonment and a Rs 60 lakh fine in the Fodder scam case. He was found guilty by the court on February 15.
This is the fifth and the biggest fodder scam case against Yadav. In the last four similar cases, he was convicted in 2013. During the conviction, he was present with 98 co-accused in the Doranda treasury case before Judge SK Shashi in Ranchi.
Breaking :Fifth fodder scam case
— LawBeat (@LawBeatInd) February 21, 2022
CBI court in Ranchi sentences RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav to 5 years’ imprisonment and imposes Rs 60 Lakh fine on him. @laluprasadrjd
Lalu’s fodder scam
The scandal was first unearthed in 1996. By then, Lalu and his co-accused had siphoned off around Rs 950 crores under the pretence of spending on fodder and other expenses for cattle over many years. CBI had registered 53 separate cases during the investigation of the scam. The largest among which was the Doranda Treasury case RC 47 (A)/96 that involved the highest number of 170 people accused, including the RLD chief, who has been proven with embezzlement of collecting Rs 139.5 crore in the case.
Previous convictions in fodder scam
Infamous as Chara Ghotala, Lalu Prasad Yadav was convicted for the first time in the Chaibasa treasury case on September 30, 2013. He has accused scams worth Rs 37.30 crore in the case. As a result of the conviction, he was disqualified from Lok Sabha and sent to jail for five years. Later he was granted bail from Supreme Court in December 2013. In December 2017, he was convicted again pertaining to his involvement in the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from the Deoghar treasury. While Lalu was sentenced to 42 months of jail term, in this case, he was out on bail within six months.
Later in January 2018, he was sentenced to five years of imprisonment in Chaibasa treasury that involved siphoning off Rs 33.13 crores. Also, in March the same year, the special court found him guilty of illegal withdrawal of Rs 3.76 crores from the Dumka treasury and sentenced him to 14 years of imprisonment.