Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav was convicted on Tuesday in the Rs 139.35-crore Doranda treasury scam, the fifth fodder scam case in which he was named as a conspirator.
File photo of Lalu Prasad Yadav. PTI
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav was convicted on Tuesday in the Rs 139.35-crore Doranda treasury scam, the fifth fodder case in which he was named as a conspirator.
Yadav, who was then the chief minister of Bihar, was named in the scam relating to embezzlement in the state’s animal husbandry department between 1991 and 1996.
The quantum of punishment will be announced on 18 February.
The RJD leader has already been convicted in four previous cases and is currently out on bail.
Let’s take a closer look at the fodder scam and all the RJ leader’s previous sentences:
What was the fodder scam
The corruption scam involved embezzlement of about Rs 950 crore from the government treasury of Bihar. The scam ended Lalu Prasad Yadav’s rule as chief minister.
The scam, spanning for more than two decades, involved the fabrication of vast herds of fictitious livestock for which fodder, medicines and animal husbandry equipment was supposedly procured.
It started as a small-scale embezzlement by a number of government employees submitting false expense reports. However, with time it attracted other parties as politicians and businessmen and grew in magnitude.
The latest order
A special CBI court in Ranchi on Tuesday convicted Yadav and 74 other accused while acquitting 24 others in the Rs 139.35 crore Doranda treasure scam.
The court had on 29 January completed hearing arguments in the case and reserved its verdict.
According to the Indian Express, the court handed three years of maximum punishment to 34 accused and imposed fines in the range of Rs 20,000 to Rs 2 lakh.
As per a report by Moneycontrol, 55 out of the original 170 accused have died, seven have become government witnesses, two have accepted the charges against them and six are absconding.
The RJD supremo, who has been sentenced to 14 years in prison and slapped with a total fine of Rs 60 lakh, has secured bail in the four cases related to Dumka, Deoghar and Chaibasa treasuries.
The four earlier cases
The RJD leader has already been convicted in four previous cases and is currently out on bail.
He was first convicted in the Rs 37.70-crore Chaibasa treasury case in September 2013. The RJD chief was given five years in jail in the case. The court also barred him from contesting elections for 11 years.
He was granted bail by the Supreme Court in December 2013.
On 23 December, 2017, Yadav was convicted by the special CBI court for fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89.27 crore from the Deoghar treasury. He was sentenced for 3.5 years in jail.
Later, he was granted bail after completing half the jail term.
On 24 January, 2018, Yadav was convicted for the withdrawal of Rs 33.13 from the Chaibasa treasury. The court sentenced him to five years in prison.
In the Rs 3.76-crore Dumka treasury case, Yadav was given 14 years in prison and a fine of Rs 60 lakh on 19 March, 2018. He was granted bail in 2021.
With inputs from agencies
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