Hindustan Surkhiyan Desk:Convicted RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav was handed a 14-year jail term and fined Rs 60 lakh in fourth fodder scam case by a special CBI court. “Since Lalu is convicted under two sections of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act, he will have to serve 14 years in jail and will be fined Rs 60 lakh in total. The judge said the jail term of 7 years each will run consecutively,” said a lawyer speaking to ABP News.
Prabhat Kumar, Lalu Prasad’s counsel told reporters that he will appeal in a higher court against the verdict.
“We will challenge it in High Court. We Will decide further strategy on basis of overall judgement in all 4 cases. I am sure there is threat to Lalu Ji’s life, looking at the conspiracy being planned by BJP,” said Lalu’s son Tejashwi Yadav.
Break-up of punishments awarded
1st case: Jail – 5 years & Rs 25 lakh fine.
2nd case: Jail – 3.5 years & Rs 5 lakh fine.
3rd case: Jail – 5 years & Rs 5 lakh fine.
4th case: Jail 14 years in two sections & Rs 60 lakh fine
The special CBI court of Shivpal Singh had convicted Lalu and 18 others on Monday, but acquitted 12, including former chief minister Jagannath Mishra, in fodder case RC 38A/96 pertaining to fraudulent withdrawals of Rs 3.13 crore from Dumka treasury between December 1995 and January 1996.
Former finance commissioner Phoolchand Singh, former regional director of animal husbandry department O.P. Diwakar, nine officials and seven transporters and suppliers were also convicted.Apart from Mishra, among those who were acquitted were former MP Jagdish Sharma, former MLAs R.K. Rana and Dhruv Bhagat (he was also PAC chairman) and former animal husbandry minister Vidya Sagar Nishad.
Four retired government officials, IAS officers M.C. Subarno (divisional commissioner), Mahesh Prasad (animal husbandry secretary), Beck Julius and former IT commissioner A.C. Choudhary, were also acquitted.
Lalu, who was not present when the court delivered the judgment on Monday, arrived half-hour later. He has been unwell and is being treated at RIMS under judicial custody. This was Lalu’s fourth conviction in a fodder scam case. He is serving time for two other fodder scam cases, RC 64A/96 (Deoghar treasury) and RC 68A/96 (Chaibasa). In 2013, he was convicted in fodder case RC 20A/96 (Chaibasa).
Clearly under the weather, Lalu was not his usual self on Monday. Neither did he plead leniency nor did he give a political statement outside the court premises. ” Jo ho raha hai wah aap dekh hi rahe hain… aage jo hoga so wo bhi dekhengen. (You can all see what is happening),” he said, sounding exhausted.
Reacting to Lalu’s fourth conviction in the fodder scam by the CBI court, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi ridiculed the statements of some RJD leaders that Lalu had been framed by the BJP.
(With additional information from The Telegraph, India)
