A special (CBI) court of BK Gautam on Saturday pronounced sentences to 23 convicts in the fodder scam case RC54A/96 related to illegal withdrawal of over Rs7 crore from Doranda Treasury during the year 1985-1990. The court has pronounced a minimum of 3 years and a maximum of 5 years of sentence, slapping a fine on all of them to the tune of Rs5,000-Rs10 lakh.
Ten of the 52 accused persons have been acquitted as 16 people died during the trial while two of them have been declared absconding by the court. One of the accused turned approver. Out of the 23 sentenced by the court, four of them are Animal Husbandry officials, while others are suppliers.
Those who were acquitted by the court on the ground of inadequate evidences against them are — Devendra Prasad, Suraj Pratap Singh, Sushil Kumar Sinha, Einul Haque, Deenanath Sahay, Sunil Kumar Sinha, Sameer Walia, OP Mishra, Sushil Kumar Khaitaan and Madan Mohan Pathak.
Those who convicted were KM Prasad, Jai Kishan, KM Prasad Sinha, Gauri Shankar Prasad, Suresh Dubey, Vijay Kumar Mallik, Sanjay Sinha, Ramashaker Singh, Vijeshwari Sinha, Ramanandan Singh, Tripurari Mohan Prasad, Anil Kumar Singh, Shyam Nandan Singh, Md. Sayeed, Ajit Verma, Nayan Ranjan, Mohinder Singh Bedi, Ramesh Prasad, Pradeep Mahto, Satyendra Mehra, Jagmohan lal Kakkad, Gajendra Kumar Kakkad, Om Prakash Pandey.