Top Indian politician jailed over fodder scam
COURT ALSO IMPOSED A FINE OF RS500,000 ON THE RJD PRESIDENT IN THE MULTIMILLION FODDER SCAM CASE
Aprominent Indian politician Lalu Prasad Yadav was jailed yesterday for three and a half years for his role in a multimillion dollar corruption case.
Yadav, 69, is a former railways minister and former chief minister of the impoverished eastern state of Bihar where he enjoys huge popular support for championing lower castes.
Last month the anti-corruption court found Yadav guilty of fraudulently withdrawing nearly $140,000 from the state treasury in a larger fraud dubbed the “fodder scam”, which was worth about Rs10 billion (Dh576.66 million).
Some 60 criminal cases were filed against dozens of politicians and public officials for colluding and defrauding the government in a scheme that was meant to help livestock farmers.
A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court yesterday sentenced former Bihar chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad Yadav to three-and-a half-years in jail in the multimillion dollar fodder scam case.
CBI judge Shivpal Singh, who pronounced the judgement through videoconferencing, also imposed a fine of Rs500,000 (Dh28,998) on Yadav, saying his imprisonment could be extended for another six months if he fails to pay. The judgement comes 13 days after Yadav and other accused persons were convicted by the court in a 21-year-old fodder scam case relating to the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs8.45 million from a local treasury.
Legal experts say, had he been awarded a jail term of three years or less, he would have easily procured bail. But now that his imprisonment exceeds that he will have to move a higher court for bail.
“Lalu Prasad has been awarded a jail term of three years and six months with a fine of rupees half [a] million. Now we will move the higher court for bail.
“Will file the appeal once we get the copy of the judgement,” Yadav’s lawyer, Prabhat Kumar, told media.
The RJD expressed disappointment over the judgement, too. “This is perhaps for the first time in the country that the man who exposed the scam is being victimised. This is not fair,” RJD’s chief spokesperson, Manoj Jha, told media.
Leader of opposition in Bihar assembly, who is also Yadav’s son, Tejashwi Yadav charged the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) with hatching a conspiracy against the RJD chief and lodging him in jail for “political reasons”.
“They [NDA leaders] are hatching a series of conspiracies against Lalu Prasad to silence the voice of the poor, oppressed and the have-nots, but if they think they will succeed in their attempt by this move, they are wrong,” Tejashwi told a media conference in Patna. He said there is anger and resentment among the masses now that the RJD president has been jailed.
Tejashwi added the ruling NDA regime began conspiring against Yadav soon after he began uniting the scattered opposition across the country. “Some 18-20 opposition parties had attended the RJD rally organised in Patna last year, which terrorised the NDA. The poor show of the NDA in the just-held Gujarat assembly elections further left them in panic and they went all-out to somehow put Lalu in jail, but their happiness will be shortlived,” he explained.
March for truth
Another senior RJD member, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, said the party would very soon be undertaking a “nyay yatra” (tour for justice) across the state during they would seek justice for the incarcerated RJD president. “We will not wait for 2019 or 2020 [when the Lok Sabha and Bihar assembly elections are to be held respectively], we will make the NDA government at the centre and in Bihar fall midway,” he declared. He said they would launching the fight against “social-economic disparity”.
The RJD president is accused in a total of six multimillion dollar fodder scam cases and this was the second case in succession where he was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment. The first judgement, which came in September 2013, destroyed his active political career. The conviction not only resulted in his instant disqualification from Parliament but also a ban on contesting elections for another decade.
The 69-year-old politician who served as the chief minister of Bihar for six years besides taking office as the federal railway minister, suffered a serious jolt in May 2017 when India’s top court revived the conspiracy and fraud charges against him in other fodder scam cases stating that separate trials would go in the remaining cases while quashing the 2014 Jharkhand high court’s order in this regard.
The apex court gave its verdict on May 8 on a CBI plea opposing the dropping of charges against Yadav by the Jharkhand High Court. Yadav denies all allegations, calling them a “political vendetta” by BJP.