A special CBI court in Ranchi pronounced RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav guilty in the fourth fodder scam case today.
FLASH: #LaluPrasadYadav pronounced guilty in fourth #FodderScam (Dumka Treasury) case by Ranchi court pic.twitter.com/zdUVVnrH90
— Doordarshan News (@DDNewsLive) March 19, 2018
Former Bihar CM and another accused in the case Jagannath Mishra was found ‘not guilty‘ in this fourth case. Lalu Prasad is currently lodged in the Birsa Munda Prison in Ranchi where he is serving a 13.5 years jail term. He was admitted to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences on Saturday after he complained of health issues. The sentences for this fourth case are yet to be announced.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has already been convicted in three of the fodder scam cases previously. Former CM Jagannath Mishra, who has been found guilty in two of the previous cases which led senior journalist Shekhar Gupta had tried to insinuate a cast bias in the judiciary, has been acquitted.
The trial of the case relating to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs. 3.76 crore from Dumka treasury between December 1995 and January 1996. However, the pronouncement of the judgement got delayed since Lalu Yadav moved an application alleging involvement of former Accountant General PK Mukhopadhyay, former Deputy Accountant General BN Jha and former Director General in AG office Pramod Kumar in the scam. Lalu Yadav had urged the court to make the three of them accused in the case under section 319 (power to proceed against other persons appearing guilty of the offence) of the CrPC.
Hearing Lalu’s plea, the judge in the special CBI court, Shivpal Singh, had ruled that the allegations on the three named above are grave and asked Lalu to obtain prosecution sanction against the three officials from the concerned authority and set April 16 as the date for the next hearing.
Lalu had mentioned the statements of several witnesses recorded by the CBI and the statements of the CBI’s own officials citing possible involvement of the AG office in the fodder scam.
A special CBI court in 2013 had convicted Lalu in the first fodder scam case involving the withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crores from the Chaibasa treasury. Lalu was pronounced guilty in another fodder scam case involving the Deoghar treasury of Rs 89 lakhs in December last year.Jagannath Mishra had been acquitted in that case. Both Lalu and Jagannath Mishra were found guilty of the third fodder scam involving the Chaibasa district treasury of Rs 33.67 crores. Lalu Prasad was sentenced to five years of jail term and a fine of Rs 10 lakhs.
