Monday, Sep 30, 2013
New Delhi: In a landmark judgement, a Jharkhand court on Monday found former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav guilty of corruption and sent him to jail in the fodder scam case.
Judge Pravas Kumar Singh, who heads the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court, will hand down sentence on Thursday.
Besides Lalu, his predecessor as Bihar chief minister, Jagannath Mishra and 43 others were also convicted by the special CBI court, bringing the curtain down on a much publicised case that went on for nearly 17 years.
“The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on October 3. Lalu Prasad and Jagannath Mishra will be given four or more than four years of punishment,” CBI lawyer Arvind Kumar Singh said.
Lalu, Mishra and all other accused were present in the court in the Jharkhand capital Ranchi when the court held them guilty in the Rs370.7 million (Dh21.7 million) fodder scam.
They were accused of fraudulently withdrawing money through fake fodder bills from Chaibasa treasury in the 1990s. Chaibasa was a district of the undivided Bihar and is now part of Jharkhand.
The court held Lalu guilty of corruption, criminal conspiracy and cheating. The sentence may vary between four to seven years in prison.
Soon after the court pronounced its judgement, Lalu was taken into custody and sent to Birsa Munda Central Jail of Ranchi.
While Lalu, known as a maverick leader ever ready to give sound bites to the media, kept quiet, his son Tejaswi Yadav described the verdict as a political conspiracy against his father and announced he will challenge the verdict in the High Court.
“The verdict is a conspiracy to implicate my father. We will fight this verdict, even go to the people’s court and give a befitting reply to our rivals,” Tejaswi said.
The father and son had arrived in Ranchi from Bihar capital Patna on Sunday to attend the court proceeding. On his way to the court from the railway guesthouse where they stayed, Lalu stopped at a temple to offer prayers.
Besides facing the prospect of spending the next four to seven years in prison, Lalu, who ruled Bihar 15 years first as the chief minister and then through his wife Rabri Devi until the party was defeated in 2005 state polls, faces the threat of being expelled from parliament and debarred from contesting elections for the next six years.
The bad news for Lalu is that the federal government, facing flak from the opposition for shielding corrupt politicians, is contemplating withdrawing an ordinance it had sent to the President in this regard.
The ordinance was meant to overrule a recent Supreme Court ruling saying anyone sentenced by a court to a term of more than two years will be disqualified from parliament or state assemblies and debarred from contesting elections for six years after his release.
This may mean Lalu, now 66, cannot contest elections for a minimum of 10 years and maximum of 13 years.
A final decision on the ordinance is to be taken on Tuesday after prime minister Manmohan Singh returns from a visit abroad.
A total of 56 persons were accused in the fodder scam case. Seven accused died during the trial, two turned witnesses and one admitted to the crime and was discharged.
Around 54 of the 61 cases filed in the fodder scam case were transferred to Jharkhand after it was created as a separate state in 2000.
Lalu quit as Bihar chief minister in July 1997, when his name figured in the scam. He made his wife Rabri Devi state chief minister and continued ruling through proxy.
He served as the federal railways minister between 2004 and 2009.
By Ajay Jha ?Chief Correspondent
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
