Ranchi: Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav has been convicted by a special CBI Court on Tuesday, along with 74 accused in the fifth fodder scam case involving illegal withdrawal of money from the Doranda treasury.
Special Judge S K Sashi also acquitted 24 accused in the case pertaining to the withdrawal of ₹139.35 crore from the Doranda treasury of Ranchi during 1995-1996. The RJD chief was present in the courtroom when the verdict was read out.
This is the fifth case of the fodder scam. Lalu Prasad has already been convicted in the previous four cases and is currently out on bail, mainly on the ground that he has served half his sentence. One more case is pending before CBI Patna pertaining to the illegal withdrawal of money from the Banka-Bhagalpur treasury.
Former MP Jagdish Sharma and then Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Dhruv Bhagat were among those found guilty as well. The sentencing is expected by February 21.
So far Yadav has been sentenced to a total of 14 years in prison, but is out on bail for the four convicted cases; the last (the Dumka treasury case) was in April last year. The case involves funds taken by Bihar's Animal Husbandry Department between 1991 and 1996, when Lalu Yadav was Chief Minister.
He has also spent over 3.5 years in judicial custody as part of his sentencing.
If given a sentence of over three years in this case, Yadav will have to return to jail. Despite this, he announced last week that he had no plans to relinquish control over the RJD to his son Tejaswini Yadav, and that he would continue to hold the reigns despite his legal and medical issues.
Lalu Yadav has already been convicted in four other matters related to the infamous ₹ 950 crore fodder scam cases - the illegal withdrawals of ₹ 37.7 crore and ₹ 33.13 crore from the Chaibasa treasury, ₹ 89.27 crore from the Deoghar treasury, and ₹ 3.76 crore from the Dumka treasury.