Fodder scam case: The Jharkhand High Court on Friday differed the hearing on the bail plea of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav till April 1 in connection with a fodder scam case. Earlier in February, a CBI court sentenced Yadav to five years imprisonment in the fifth fodder scam case and imposed a fine of Rs 60 lakh on him.
Yadav was declared guilty on February 15. Of the 99 accused in the case, 24 were acquitted, while three-year jail terms were pronounced for the 46 accused. Yadav has been found guilty of illegal withdrawals of Rs 139.35 crore from the Doranda treasury by a special CBI court in Jharkhand’s Ranchi.
Earlier, the former chief minister had been sentenced in four fodder scam cases. This case (RC 47A/97) was the fifth and the biggest in which Rs 139.35 crore was illegally withdrawn. The Rs 950-crore fodder scam relates to the fraudulent withdrawal of public funds from government treasuries in various districts of undivided Bihar.
The scam came into light after a raid conducted by Deputy Commissioner of Chaibasa Amit Khare at the Animal Husbandry Department in January 1996. The CBI was roped in by the Patna High Court in March 1996 after increasing pressure to investigate the case. The CBI registered an FIR in the case at a time when Bihar was still undivided.
In June 1997, Yadav was named an accused in the case for the first time in the charge sheet filed by the CBI.
