A Special CBI Court found Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo and former Bihar Chief Minister lalu Prasad along with 14 others guilty in another fodder scam case on Saturday. However, former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra and six others heaved a sigh of relief as they were acquitted of charges. Quantum of punishment for lalu and others will be decided on January 3.
While the lawyer representing lalu said that they would get justice from upper courts, the one representing Jagannath Mishra came out saying that the justice prevailed. Notably, CBI presented 208 witnesses in the case to prove its position strong in the case.
Sixty-nine-year-old lalu and other convicts were taken into custody immediately after the pronouncement of the verdict. lalu’s son Tejashwi Yadav, who is the leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, was present in the court. The convicts were then whisked off to Birsa Munda Jail, where security has been tightened, CBI sources said.
This case pertains to alleged fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from Deoghar Treasury between 1991 and 1994. Right after the verdict in the case number RC64A/96, RJD spokesperson Manoj Jha didn’t waste any time and said the court decision was politically motivated, as it is controlled by none other than top two leaders of the country. Notably, Jagannath Mishra is also on bail in the first
fodder scam in which he was convicted.
The trial of this 22-year-old case gained momentum only after the Supreme Court in May this year directed the Special CBI Court to complete it in nine months. The court also pronounced politicians, including former MP Jagdish Sharma and RK Rana, former Bihar Minister Jainarayan Nishad and Dhruva Bhagat accused.
The decision is being seen as a huge setback for lalu, who was not only expecting to walk free from the court just like the 2G scam accused. The RJD chief is already struggling hard to bring political career of his two sons back on track after the JD(U) reignited its cozy relations with the BJP.
There were 34 accused in the case, out of which 11 died during the trial, while one turned CBI approver. Two other accused admitted to their guilt and were sentenced in 2007.
Notably, lalu was convicted in the first fodder scam case in September 2013 with five-year prison sentence. This verdict hit his political career as he was disqualified from the lok Sabha and was also banned from contesting elections for next six years after completing the jail sentence. He, however, was released on bail granted by the Supreme Court in December 2013.
On September 30, 2013, lalu Prasad, Jagannath Mishra and several others had been convicted in another case pertaining to illegal withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore from Chaibasa Treasury in the early 1990s. Today’s conviction is the second in the scam.
The Supreme Court had granted bail on December 13 that year to lalu, who had been behind the bars for two months. He had moved the apex court challenging the order of the Jharkhand High Court which had dismissed his bail plea.
lalu Prasad faces another three fodder scam cases for illegal withdrawal of Rs 3.97 crore from the Dumka Treasury, Rs 36 crore from the Chaibasa Treasury and Rs 184 crore from the Doranda treasury.
“The legal fight will continue,” Raghuvansh Prasad Singh told reporters outside the Special CBI Court here reacting to the conviction of the RJD chief.
He said that besides fighting it legally, the party would go to the people and “fight it politically also”.
Another senior RJD leader, Abdul Bari Siddiqui, a confidant of lalu1, said it was not right to comment on a judgment but the people were discussing how it is freedom for some people and jail for others in the same case.
“The layman is asking why it is jail for some and freedom for othersIJ It is baffling how the BJP and JD(U) had predicted the verdict. This has created confusion among the people also,” he said.