Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav was on Saturday arrested after he was convicted by a special CBI court in Ranchi, in the multi-crore fodder scam.
A total of 16 people, including Lalu Yadav, have been found guilty, while six, including former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra, have been acquitted in the case, RC 64(A)/1996. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on 3 January.
This is the second fodder scam case in which Lalu has been convicted. After his conviction in the first case, he was disqualified from contesting elections. It also cost him his Lok Sabha seat.
CBI judge Shivpal Singh pronounced the verdict in a packed courtroom in Ranchi in the case related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from Deoghar Treasury between 1991 and 1994. Lalu and the other convicts were taken to the Birsa Munda Central Jail immediately after the verdict came.
The scam, which was exposed in 1996, pertains to embezzlement of around Rs 1,000 crore from the state exchequer for purchase of fictitious fodder and medicines for cattle between 1990 and 1997, when Lalu was the Chief Minister. A chargesheet was filed against 38 persons in October 1997. While 11 of them died, three turned approvers, while two others confessed to their crime and were convicted in 2006-07. The accused are facing charges under different sections of IPC and also Prevention of Corruption Act.
In September 2013, Lalu, who was also a Union minister in the UPA government, was found guilty in the first case, following which he was in jail for a few months. Subsequently, he got bail in December 2013. In that case, he was sentenced to five years in jail and fined Rs 25 lakh for fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.5 crore from the Chaibasa treasury. The Supreme Court granted him bail in December 2013. In 2014, the Jharkhand high court stayed the trial against Yadav in four of the pending cases on the ground that a person convicted in one case could not be tried in similar cases based on same witnesses and evidence. The order, however, was quashed by the apex court, which ordered Yadav to stand trial in all pending fodder scam cases in which he was an accused. After his conviction, Lalu tweeted: ‘Truth can be made to appear as a lie, as ambiguous or a half lie by concerted onslaught of bias driven propaganda. But blurred layer of bias and hatred will still be removed, come what may! In end Truth will win.”
“Had people like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Baba Saheb Ambedkar failed in their efforts, history would have treated them as villains. They still are villains for the biased, racist and caste-ist minds. No one should expect any different treatment,” said another of his tweets. Congress leader Manish Tiwari said: “Lalu has been fighting this legal battle since 1996. It started when BJP leaders filed PIL against him in the Patna High Court. He and his lawyers are capable of fighting this case.”
BJP spokesperson G.V.L. Narasimha Rao said: “Lalu symbolises corrupt politics of the country. In a democracy, it is important that the faith is not eroded. I think the popular sentiment in this country is that there should be no leniency as far as corruption is concerned.”
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, who was one of the petitioners in the fodder scam PIL, which resulted in CBI inquiry, said: “This had to happen. You reap what you sow.”