VERDICT IN 4TH FODDER SCAM CASE AGAINST LALU ON MARCH 15

A special CBI court in Ranchi on Monday concluded trial proceedings in the fourth fodder scam case against Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad and fixed March 15 to pronounce the verdict.

The case relates to fraudulent withdrawal of ₹3.76 crore from Dumka treasury between December 1995 and January 1996.

Besides Prasad, another former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra and 29 others are also accused in this case.

Prasad’s lawyer Prabhat Kumar said, “The court of special judge Shivpal Singh closed the trial after the CBI concluded its final argument. It fixed March 15 to pronounce the judgment.”

Prasad has already been convicted in three of the five fodder scam cases registered against him in Ranchi. He was first convicted on September 30, 2013, in the Chaibasa treasury case related to fraudulent withdrawal of ₹37.70 crore. He was then awarded a five-year jail term, leading to his disqualification from the Lok Sabha. After serving sentence for 77 days, Prasad came out of jail after the Supreme Court granted him bail in December 2013.

On December 23 2017, a special CBI court convicted him in the case related to fraudulent withdrawal of ₹89.27 lakh from Deoghar treasury. Prasad was sentenced to 3.5 years in jail in this case. A month later, on January 24, 2018, another CBI court convicted and sentenced him to five years of imprisonment in the case related to fraudulent withdrawal of ₹33.13. Prasad has been in the Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi since December 23 last year.

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