Former Bihar Chief Minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has been convicted in fifth fodder scam case  |  Photo Credit: PTI
Key Highlights
- A special CBI court has convicted Lalu Prasad Yadav in the Rs 139.35 crore Doranda treasury embezzlement case on Tuesday.
- The former Chief Minister of Bihar and RJD chief has already been convicted in four fodder scam cases.
- The quantum of punishment for Lalu Prasad Yadav will be announced on February 21.
Former Bihar Chief Minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has been found guilty of embezzling Rs 139.35 crore from the Doranda treasury in 1995-1996 by a special CBI court in Ranchi on Tuesday. Special Judge SK Sashi convicted Yadav and 74 others and acquitted 24 in the fifth fodder scam case. Lalu Prasad Yadav has already been convicted in the earlier four cases of the fodder scam. He is currently out on bail.
What is the case?
The scam pertains to the illegal withdrawal of Rs 139.35 crore from Rachi’s Doranda treasury in the fodder scam that shook the country in the mid-1990s. The scam was around the embezzlement of the Rs 950-crore that was unearthed on January 27, 1996, during a raid on the offices of the Animal Husbandry department in Bihar’s Chaibasa (now in Jharkhand). The case embroiled Lalu Prasad Yadav, who was then chief minister of Bihar, in a lifelong tussle with the CBI that continues to date.
The fraud brought to light the embezzlement of government treasury funds at the largest scale imaginable then. The embezzled funds were granted to non-existent companies for the purchase and supply of cattle fodder in Bihar in the 1980s and 1990s. While the scam came to light in 1996, the theft was in progress and was getting bigger, for over two decades. It also brought to light the extensive nexus and involvement between elected politicians, tenured bureaucrats and businesspeople when it came to misappropriation of public money.
What are the other four scams?
This is the fifth scam case in which Lalu Yadav has been convicted. He is serving the sentence in four other cases and is currently out on bail on the grounds of half the sentence already served. He was convicted in the first fodder scam case in 2013 and was awarded five years in prison, in relation to the illegal withdrawal of funds from the Chaibasa treasury. This was also a massive jolt on his political career as it barred him from contesting elections for 11 years.
The next conviction was in December 2017. He was convicted and jailed to three and half years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10 lakh in the second fodder scam case of misappropriating Rs 89.27 lakh from the Deoghar district treasury between 1990 and 1994
Lalu Prasad Yadav was sentenced to five years in prison in the third fodder scam case in January 2018 for embezzling Rs 33.67 crores from the Chaibasa treasury in 1992-1993. The fourth fodder scam case in which he was convicted in May 2018 was related to the embezzlement of Rs 3.13 crore from Dumka treasury in the early 1990s. He was sentenced to 14 years in jail and fined Rs 60 lakh.
With the conviction on Tuesday marking his fifth, another case is pending before the CBI over the alleged misappropriation from Banka-Bhagalpur treasury.
What did the Special Judge say?
Special Judge SK Sashi who convicted Lalu Prasad and 74 other accused, has awarded three years of maximum punishment to 34 accused and imposed fines ranging between Rs 20,000 and Rs 2 lakh. The sentence on Lalu Prasad and 40 others accused will be announced on February 21.
For this particular case, the charges were framed on September 26, 2005, the prosecution evidence was closed on May 16, 2019, and the statements of the accused persons were recorded on January 16, 2020, as per the court records.
What next?
Lalu Prasad’s bail will be decided depending on the quantum of sentence he is awarded next week, considering if he had undergone half the sentence. The former CM and RJD supremo has not been keeping too well. He was lodged in the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Ranchi since August 2018 and was serving most of his sentence there. Last month, on January 23, the ailing leader was shifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi. His lawyers might appeal for a lesser sentence citing his age (he’s 73-years-old) and his frail health.