Today, Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav was sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment and slapped with a fine of Rs 60 lakh by a special CBI court in the fifth fodder scam case.
The fodder scam case came to light after a raid at the animal husbandry department in January 1996. At that time, former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra along with Lalu Prasad Yadav was the main accused.
He was arrested in 2013 first but was granted bail later by the court. He has secured bail in four cases related to Dumka, Deoghar, and Chaibasa treasuries. The Jharkhand high court granted bail to Lalu Prasad Yadav in the Dumka Treasury fodder scam in April 2021, when he was kept in Birsa Munda Central Jail in 2017.
A total of around 170 charge sheets have been filed by the special CBI court in connection with the withdrawal of public funds from government treasuries of 950 crore rupees.
On Tuesday, apart from ex-Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav, former MP Jagdish Sharma, the then Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Dhruv Bhagat, Animal Husbandry Secretary Beck Julius, and Animal Husbandry Assistant Director Dr. K M Prasad were convicted in the fifth fodder case by a special CBI court in Ranchi. The advocate for the convict has argued for lighter sentencing due to his old age.
On February 21, the police arrested the RJD supremo as soon as the sentence had been pronounced by the court. Following this, at the request of his lawyer, he was released from jail and transferred to RIMS. Lalu went from court to Hotwar jail to finish the paperwork before heading to RIMS.
