Verdict in fodder scam case today

RANCHI: A special CBI court in Ranchi will on Saturday pronounce judgment in a fodder scam case related to fraudulent withdrawals of ~90 lakh from Deoghar treasury during 1991-94 involving former Bihar chief ministers Lalu Prasad and Jagannath Mishra as accused.

Prasad, Mishra and other accused arrived Friday to appear in person before the court.

A number of Rashtriya Janata Party (RJD) workers and supporters from Bihar and Jharkhand made a beeline to meet their chief here at the railway guest house where Prasad is staying.

Out of the six fodder scam cases registered against Prasad, this is the second case which would attain finality.

Prasad had suffered a major jolt in the fodder scam case on September 30, 2013 when a CBI

court held him guilty. The conviction got him five years in prison, disqualification from Parliament and a ban on contesting elections. He was given bail by the Supreme Court in December that year.

Trial against Prasad in case related to Deoghar treasury was revived after SC order on May 8.

The apex court had restored the corruption charges against

Prasad by quashing a 2014 order of the Jharkhand high court, which had dropped Sections 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the IPC and Section 13 (1)(d) (corruption, abusing his office as public servant) of the Prevention of Corruption Act under which Prasad was booked.

With the commencement of trial in June, Parasad had to make personal appearance before the court almost every week in Ranchi. Even on the day when Nitish Kumar broke the alliance with the RJD on July 27, Lalu had to travel to Ranchi by road to attend court proceedings the next day.

The case, however, witnessed a curious turn in August this year when Prasad accused judge Shivpal Singh of misbehaving with a defence witness and moved the Jharkhand high court seeking transfer of the case from the court of Shivpal Singh to another court. The high court, however, dismissed Prasad’s petition finding no merit in his plea.

As many as 38 accused were involved in the case of which 11 died during trial, two became approvers (CBI witnesses) and two pleaded guilty. “My client has arrived in Ranchi to appear before the court on Saturday, the day for the verdict,” said Prasad’s advocate Prabhat Kumar.