RJD chief lalu Prasad was held guilty in another fodder scam case RC38A/96 by Special CBI Court of Shivpal Singh on Monday, while other politicians, including former Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra, were acquitted.
lalu has already been convicted in three fodder scam cases and he is lodged in Birsa Munda Central Jail.
The court will hear the arguments on the quantum of punishment on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and pass a judgment on March 23.
Other politicians who were acquitted include then Chairmen of Public Accounts Committee Dhruv Bhagat and Jagdish Sharma, former MP RK Rana and former Bihar Minister Vidyasagar Nishad along with three IAS officers (now retired) Beck Julius, MC Subarno and Mahesh Prasad were also let off by the Court. However, the court found Phoolchand Singh, another IAS officer, guilty.
Other accused persons acquitted by the Court are - the then IT Commissioner Adheep Chandra Chaudhary, Proprietor of laxmi Entreprises Benu Jha, Proprietor of RK Agencies lal Mohan Prasad and Proprietor of SR Enterprises Saraswati Chandra.
Remarkably, the Court did not have had any information about health problems of Prasad, who is currently admitted to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS). So, he was brought late to the Court by the jail authorities after the pronouncement of judgment.
"I don't have any information related to his illness…I will ask the jail authorities why they did not inform me about it," said the Court. It, however, asked Prasad whether he was being treated properly at RIMS or not to which the RJD Chief responded that he did not had any problem there in the hospital.
"If you have any problem, get yourself referred to Delhi where you will not have any problem," the Court said. Surprisingly, Prasad did not respond to it and asked about the quantum of punishment and was informed by the Court that it will be pronounced on Friday.
RC64A/96 is relates to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89,4417 lakh from Deoghar Treasury with the help of 6 fake allotment letters during 1991 to 1994. Initially, a total of 48 persons were made accused in the case out of which 14 persons died during the trial and two of them -- Rameshwar Chaudhary and Dr Sayeed, were made government approvers. The first chargesheet was filed in the court in May 2000.
Criminal proceeding against another accused the then Divisional Commissioner of Dumka SN Dubey, however, was stopped after a quashing order was passed by the Jharkhand High Court.