****LALU CONVICTED;BACK TO JAIL****
Lalu Yadav convicted, goes to jail: A quick guide to the fodder scam
A CBI court in Ranchi has found Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav guilty in the fodder scam case. Another former chief minister of Bihar, Jagannath Mishra, has also been convicted in the case that has seen the first major convictions after 17 years.
1)The case was first registered in 1996. It involved the embezzlement of Rs 37 crore from the Chaibasa treasury (then part of Bihar, now in Jharkhand).
2) The CBI found that the embezzlement had been going on for a decade and pegged the amount embezzled at more than Rs 900 crore.
3) A nexus of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats had been bypassing officials of the district administration and withdrawing cash from the treasury by presenting fictitious bills for purchase of fodder.
4) A total of 61 cases were filed originally. Forty-four of those have been disposed of.
5)Lalu was an accused in six cases, of which five are being heard by the CBI court. Another 44 persons, including former CM Jagannath Mishra, were also accused in these cases. Lalu was allegedly in the know about the scam and was accused of “providing umbrella protection to the scamsters”.
6) Lalu and 44 others have been found guilty in a case referred to as RC 20(A)/96. The others convicted in this case include six politicians and four IAS officers. This is the first fodder-scam case being heard by the CBI court in which a verdict has been pronounced.
7) Expecting an unfavourable judgment, Lalu had approached the Jharkhand High Court and then the Supreme Court, claiming that the CBI special judge was a relative of Bihar education minister PK Shahi and would be prejudiced against Lalu. Both the Jharkhand HC and the apex court dismissed Lalu’s plea saying it was “a long-pending case and did not have sufficient ground to transfer”.
8)The convicts have been sent to jail and the sentence will be pronounced on 3 October. The prosecution lawyer said the minimum sentence will be four years and could go up to seven years. Lalu and Mishra, both former CMs, will cool their heels in Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Central Jail in the same upper division ward where former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda spent more than three years.
9) Accusations of involvement in the scam had cost Lalu his position as Bihar chief minister. He resigned on 25 July 1997 and installed his wife Rabri Devi as the new CM on the same day. This time, Rabri Devi is reportedly slated to take over as RJD chief in Lalu’s absence while his youngest son Tejaswi Yadav will be in charge of the party’s executive affairs. Jagannath Mishra was expelled from the Congress in 1998.
10) Earlier, the then Chaibasa district magistrate Sajal Chakravarty was convicted in three cases on the same charges as Lalu Yadav. The Jharkhand High Court, however, found last year that the CBI had unable to establish the guilt of the accused, leading to the cases being quashed and Chakravarty’s acquittal. Chakravarty was restored to the Indian Administrative Services with all due pay and benefits. He is a now a principal secretary in the Jharkhand cadre.
SaSha
@ISW
Lalu Yadav convicted, goes to jail: A quick guide to the fodder scam
A CBI court in Ranchi has found Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav guilty in the fodder scam case. Another former chief minister of Bihar, Jagannath Mishra, has also been convicted in the case that has seen the first major convictions after 17 years.
1)The case was first registered in 1996. It involved the embezzlement of Rs 37 crore from the Chaibasa treasury (then part of Bihar, now in Jharkhand).
2) The CBI found that the embezzlement had been going on for a decade and pegged the amount embezzled at more than Rs 900 crore.
3) A nexus of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats had been bypassing officials of the district administration and withdrawing cash from the treasury by presenting fictitious bills for purchase of fodder.
4) A total of 61 cases were filed originally. Forty-four of those have been disposed of.
5)Lalu was an accused in six cases, of which five are being heard by the CBI court. Another 44 persons, including former CM Jagannath Mishra, were also accused in these cases. Lalu was allegedly in the know about the scam and was accused of “providing umbrella protection to the scamsters”.
6) Lalu and 44 others have been found guilty in a case referred to as RC 20(A)/96. The others convicted in this case include six politicians and four IAS officers. This is the first fodder-scam case being heard by the CBI court in which a verdict has been pronounced.
7) Expecting an unfavourable judgment, Lalu had approached the Jharkhand High Court and then the Supreme Court, claiming that the CBI special judge was a relative of Bihar education minister PK Shahi and would be prejudiced against Lalu. Both the Jharkhand HC and the apex court dismissed Lalu’s plea saying it was “a long-pending case and did not have sufficient ground to transfer”.
8)The convicts have been sent to jail and the sentence will be pronounced on 3 October. The prosecution lawyer said the minimum sentence will be four years and could go up to seven years. Lalu and Mishra, both former CMs, will cool their heels in Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Central Jail in the same upper division ward where former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda spent more than three years.
9) Accusations of involvement in the scam had cost Lalu his position as Bihar chief minister. He resigned on 25 July 1997 and installed his wife Rabri Devi as the new CM on the same day. This time, Rabri Devi is reportedly slated to take over as RJD chief in Lalu’s absence while his youngest son Tejaswi Yadav will be in charge of the party’s executive affairs. Jagannath Mishra was expelled from the Congress in 1998.
10) Earlier, the then Chaibasa district magistrate Sajal Chakravarty was convicted in three cases on the same charges as Lalu Yadav. The Jharkhand High Court, however, found last year that the CBI had unable to establish the guilt of the accused, leading to the cases being quashed and Chakravarty’s acquittal. Chakravarty was restored to the Indian Administrative Services with all due pay and benefits. He is a now a principal secretary in the Jharkhand cadre.
SaSha
@ISW
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