Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav was convicted on Tuesday in the Rs 139.35-crore Doranda treasury scam, the fifth fodder case in which he was named as a conspirator. Yadav, who was then the chief minister of Bihar, was named in the scam relating to embezzlement in the state’s animal husbandry department between 1991 and 1996.
Prasad had earlier been sentenced to 14 years in jail in four other fodder scam cases. “Lalu Prasad has been convicted. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on February 18,” the CBI counsel said. The court of Special CBI Judge SK Shashi had completed the hearing against 99 accused including Prasad, which was under way since February last year.
Arguments on behalf of the last accused, Shailendra Kumar, were completed on January 29. All the accused had been ordered to be physically present in the court on the day of the verdict. Of the original 170 accused in the case, 55 have died, seven have become government witnesses, two have accepted the charges against them and six are absconding.
Apart from Prasad, former MP Jagdish Sharma, the then Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Dhruv Bhagat, Animal Husbandry Secretary Beck Julius and Animal Husbandry Assistant Director KM Prasad were the main accused. The Rs 950-crore scam relates to fraudulent withdrawal of public funds from government treasuries in various districts of undivided Bihar.
