RJD chief Lalu Yadav jailed for five years, fined 60 lakhs in fodder scam case

Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Yadav (RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav) has been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and 60 lakh fine from the special CBI court in the Dorda treasury case of Fodder Scam. The CBI court had convicted 38 accused including RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav in the case of embezzlement of 139.35 crore from Ranchi’s Doranda treasury, the biggest of the famous fodder scam of Rs 950 crore.

CBI special prosecutor BMP Singh said that out of 38 convicts, 35 Birsa Munda is lodged in jail while three other convicts including Lalu Prasad Yadav are admitted to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) due to health reasons. In this case, the CBI had filed a charge sheet against a total of 170 accused while charges were framed against 148 accused on 26 September 2005.

The court had on January 29 reserved its verdict after hearing arguments of all the parties against 99 people, including Lalu Prasad Yadav, who was sentenced to fourteen years in four different fodder scam cases.

Let us inform that the fodder scam case in United Bihar came to light in January 1996 after raids in the Animal Husbandry Department. In June 1997, the CBI named Lalu Yadav, the then Chief Minister, as an accused. The agency had framed charges against Lalu Prasad and former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra. In September 2013, the trial court convicted Lalu Prasad, Jagannath Mishra and 45 others in a case related to the fodder scam and sent them to Ranchi jail.

In December 2013, the Supreme Court granted bail to Lalu Prasad in the case, while in December 2017, a CBI court found him and 15 others guilty and sent them to Birsa Munda jail. The Jharkhand High Court had granted bail to Lalu Prasad in April 2021. A total of five cases are going on in the fodder scam, in which this is the fifth and last case.