Fodder scam: Lalu Prasad jailed for 5 years, loses Lok Sabha seat

RJD chief and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad has been sentenced to five years in jail and fined Rs 25 lakh in a fodder case RC 20 A/96 by a special CBI court on Thursday in Ranchi. With the sentencing Lalu has also been disqualified from Parliament and has lost his Lok Sabha seat. Another former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra has been sentenced to four years in jail. On Monday, special CBI judge Pravas Kumar K Singh held Lalu and 44 others guilty in the fodder scam case, RC 20 A/96. Lalu has been convicted of corruption, criminal conspiracy and cheating. The other politicians who have been convicted are Janata Dal United MP Jagdish Sharma, former legislators RK Rana, Dhruv Bhagat and Vidya Sagar Nishad after 17 years.

The sentencing also renders Lalu ineligible for contesting elections for at least six years as per a recent Supreme Court order. Lalu was arrested and sent to Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi a few minutes after the verdict on Monday. His only hope - an ordinance and Bill to shield convicted legislators - was withdrawn by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday. As per a recent Supreme Court judgement a legislator convicted in a case where the minimum sentence is two years in jail will lose his/her seat immediately. Lalu was one of the 45 people facing charges in the RC 20 A/96 case and had been charged with fraudulent withdrawing Rs 37.7 crore on fake fodder bills from Chaibasa treasury in the 1990s. Chaibasa was then part of undivided Bihar and is now in Jharkhand. There were a total of 56 accused in the case. But during the trial, seven accused died, two turned approver, one admitted to the crime and one was discharged. Lalu and Jagannath are accused in a total of five fodder scam cases. Lalu quit as Bihar chief minister on July 25, 1997 when his name figured in the CBI investigations in the scam, which surfaced in 1996. After stepping down, he rather surprising pulled his wife Rabri Devi out of the "chowka" (kitchen) and made her the chief minister and continued to rule through proxy.

Source: IBN