Ranchi: Former Union Minister, Ex-Bihar Chief Minister and one of the tallest secular leaders in India Lalu Prasad Yadav has been on Saturday convicted by the special CBI court in second of the five fodder scam cases.
The CBI court has also ordered all properties acquired by Lalu Prasad Yadav after 1990 to be attached. The court will pronounce the quantum of Lalu’s punishment on January 3.
Today's case relates to embezzling of more than Rs. 85 lakh from the Deoghar Treasury between 1991 and 1994. In this case, Lalu Yadav faces accusations that as the Chief Minister and Finance Minister back in the nineties, he kept the file for an inquiry against the mastermind of the scam pending for 16 months and gave three other officials extensions despite objections from bureaucrats.
The CBI says he was aware of the scam but allowed the loot to continue by his inaction.
Apart from Lalu Yadav, former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra and 19 others are also accused in the case. Mishra however has been acquitted by the Special CBI Court in Ranchi today.
Of the 34 people initially accused in the case, 11 died during the course of trial, while one turned approver and admitted to the crime.
In October 2013, Yadav was convicted in one of the cases - on charges of embezzling Rs. 37 crore. That verdict had disqualified him from the Lok Sabha and contesting elections.
In 2014, the Jharkhand High Court had given relief to the former Bihar Chief Minister and others by dropping charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and prevention of corruption. The court had quashed the cases on the grounds that a person convicted in one case could not be tried in similar cases based on same witnesses and evidences.
In May this year, the Supreme Court ruled that Lalu Yadav will have to stand trial in all the fodder scam cases, setting aside the high court order that dropped cases charges against the former Bihar chief minister.
The former chief minister of Bihar had been charged in several cases related to the scam, in which Rs. 900 crore were embezzled from the state exchequer for fictitious medicines and fodder for cattle over a period of 20 years. The CBI started probing the case in 1996.
Ina double blow to Lalu Parsad Yadav on Saturday, his daughter Misa Bharti and her husband found themselves in a tight spot as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed charges against them in a money laundering case today
The charges were filed by ED Counsel Nitesh Rana before the court of Special Judge N K Malhotra. Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family have been on the receiving end as ED and Income Tax department have closed in on the assets owned by the family.
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