Lalu Yadav convicted in 4th fodder scam case involving theft of Rs 3.13 cr from Dumka treasury; Jagannath Mishra let off

A special CBI court in Ranchi on Monday held RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav guilty in the fourth fodder scam case. The court, however, acquitted co-accused Jagannath Mishra. Nineteen others were also convicted in the case, which involved the withdrawal of Rs 3.13 crore from the Dumka treasury, reports said. Mishra and Lalu were accused of theft along with 29 others including veterinary doctors as well as IAS officials in the multi-crore case. [caption id=“attachment_4396065” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Lalu Prasad Yadav and Jagannath Mishra. PTI[/caption] Apart from Lalu, nineteen others, including Manoranjan Prasad, MC Vedi, OP Diwakar and veterinary officers Nand Kishore Prasad and Dr Vimal Kant Das were found guilty in the case. Mishra was one one of 10 who were acquitted in the case on Monday. The quantum of punishment in the case is likely to be announced during the hearings on 21-23 March. The special CBI court had earlier fixed 17 March as the date of pronouncement of the judgment, but it was deferred on 15 March after Lalu’s counsel filed a petition under Section 319 of CrPC seeking that three officials of the Accountant General (in the 1990s) be made a party to the case. As Firstpost had reported earlier, Lalu, has already been convicted in three fodder scam cases while Mishra has been convicted in two cases. The first conviction came in 2013 when he was sentenced to five years in jail. Lalu has been lodged in the Birsa Munda jail at Ranchi since 23 December, 2017, when he was found guilty in the second fodder scam case involving the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from the Deoghar treasury 21 years ago. A special CBI court had sentenced Lalu to three-and-a-half years in jail and fined him Rs 10 lakh in the second fodder scam case on 6 January. On 24 January, a special CBI court sentenced Lalu and  Mishra to five years in jail in a third case in the fodder scam, related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.62 crore from the Chaibasa treasury. Soon after the conviction of Lalu on Monday, cries of vendetta politics on the part of BJP and JD(U) against Lalu grew louder among the RJD chief’s supporters. RJD leader and Lalu loyalist Raghuvansh Prasad Singh broke into a verse accusing both present Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of foul play in the case. Speaking to CNN-News18, Singh said, “Ek aadmi ko jail, ek aadmi ko bail, ye hai Narendra Modi ka khel (One man got jail, while another got bail. This is Narendra Modi’s game).” Among those who reiterated the RJD stand on the issue was former JD(U) leader Ali Anwar, who told CNN-News18 that BJP’s vendetta politics against Lalu is known to everyone in the country. With inputs from PTI