Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 15: The former Bihar chief minister and the chief of the Rashtriya Janata Dal Lalu Prasad Yadav has been found guilty of illegal withdrawals of ₹ 139.35 crore from the Doranda treasury by a special CBI court in Ranchi, he capital city of Jharkhand.
Lalu Yadav – who has now been convicted in all five fodder scam cases in which he was named as a conspirator – Had arrived in Ranchi on Sunday and was present in the courtroom Tuesday morning as Judge CK Shashi read out the verdict. 98 other accused were also physically present, of whom 24 were acquitted.
Of those pronounced guilty, 35 were sentenced to three years in jail, including former MP Jagdish Sharma and then Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Dhruv Bhagat. This qualifies them to move for bail. Sentencing for Lalu Yadav and the 39 others found guilty will be taken up on February 21.
Prasad has already been convicted in four other cases of the fodder scam. This is the fifth and final case. The Rs 950 Crores fodder scam relates to fraudulent withdrawal of public funds from government treasuries in various districts of then undivided Bihar. The RJD supremo, who has been sentenced to 14 years in prison and slapped with a total fine of ₹60 lakh, has secured bail in the four earlier cases related to Dumka, Deoghar and Chaibasa treasuries. He has challenged all four previous convictions and will likely challenge this too. All cases relate to the swindling of government funds meant for cattle fodder.
Of the original 170 accused in the case, 55 have died, seven have become government witnesses, two have accepted the charges against them and six are absconding. Apart from Prasad, Jagdish Sharma and Dhruv Bhagat, Animal Husbandry Secretary Beck Julius and Animal Husbandry Assistant Director Dr K M Prasad are the main accused.
The court on January 29 had completed hearing arguments in the Rs 139.35 crore Doranda treasury embezzlement case involving Prasad and had reserved its verdict. The court of Special CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) Judge S K Shashi had completed the hearing against 99 accused including Prasad, which was underway since February last year. Arguments on behalf of the last accused, Dr Shailendra Kumar, were completed on January 29.
Lalu Yadav found guilty in four other matters related to the infamous fodder scam included fraudulent withdrawals of ₹ 37.7 crore and ₹ 33.13 crore from the Chaibasa treasury, ₹ 89.27 crore from the Deoghar treasury, and ₹ 3.76 crore from the Dumka treasury. For his conviction in the Dumka case he was also handed a fine of ₹ 60 lakh.
The fodder scam came to light in January 1996 after a raid at the Animal Husbandry Department. The CBI named Prasad as an accused in June 1997. The agency framed charges against Prasad and former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra.
In September 2013, the trial court convicted Prasad, Mishra and 45 others in one of the cases related to the fodder scam and Prasad was imprisoned in Ranchi jail. In December 2013, Supreme Court granted bail to Prasad in the case while in December 2017, CBI court found him and 15 others guilty and sent them to Birsa Munda prison. Jharkhand High Court granted bail to Prasad in April 2021.
So far he has been sentenced to a total of 14 years in prison, but is out on bail for the four convicted cases; the last (the Dumka treasury case) was in April last year. The case involves funds taken by Bihar’s Animal Husbandry Department between 1991 and 1996, when Lalu Yadav was Chief Minister. He has also spent over 3.5 years in judicial custody as part of his sentencing.
In jail since December 2017, the 73-year-old served most of his sentence at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences. He was brought to Delhi in January last year after his health worsened. However, if given a sentence of over three years in this case, Lalu Yadav will have to return to jail.
In his absence, his son Tejashwi Yadav led the RJD and is credited with the party’s strong showing in the 2020 Bihar election; it was the first time in 40 years Lalu Yadav missed a state poll campaign. His absence, though, has not led to him relinquishing control over the RJD.
Last week he made it clear he had no such plans, despite his legal and medical problems, and that his son, Tejashwi Yadav, would have to wait before replacing him at the head of the party. Tejashwi Yadav is now Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly.
