RJD’s Hussain gets four years in jail

Aspecial Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Jharkhand yesterday sentenced a former minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) lawmaker Iliyas Hussain to four year imprisonment in a 26-yearold bitumen scam involving defalcation of Rs1.8 million (about Dh94,726).

Hussain is considered very close to party chief Lalu Prasad Yadav who is already in jail in connection with multimillion fodder scam.

Special CBI judge Anil Kumar Mishra also imposed a fine of Rs200,000 (about Dh10,526) on Hussain who along with two others who too were convicted by the court.

Hussain, a prominent leader from the RJD represents Dehri seat in the Bihar assembly. He has been one of the prominent minority faces of the party after Mohammad Taslimuddin who died last year.

The scam had surfaced in 1992 after which the CBI registered a case against Hussain who was then the road construction minister in the Lalu Prasad government. The scam in supply of 375 metric tons of bitumen had caused a loss of Rs1.8 million to the state exchequer, reports said.