New Delhi, India

Indian politician Lalu Prasad Yadav, former chief minister of the country's northern state Bihar, was sentenced to five years of imprisonment on Monday (February 21) in a multi-million dollar Doranda treasury scam, the fifth fodder scam case. 

Advertisment

A special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Ranchi also imposed a fine of Rs 6 million on the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader. 

The popular politician was along with other accused people was pronounced guilty by an Indian court on February 15. 

CBI counsel BMP Singh told news agency PTI: "Lalu Prasad has been sentenced to 5 years imprisonment while a penalty of Rs 60 lakh has also been imposed on him." 

Advertisment

"Apart from Prasad, five years imprisonment each was announced by the Court for five convicts, four years each for 32 convicts and three years each for three convicts," Singh added. 

In the Rs 1.39 billion fodder scam case, which is the fifth case related to the scam, an FIR was lodged in the Doranda police station in 1996. CBI later took over the case for investigation. 

Previously, Lalu was found guilty of a fodder scam in four cases. He is serving a sentence of 27.5 years of imprisonment.

Advertisment

The 75-year-old appeared in the court virtually as he is in judicial custody and is admitted to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) owing to poor health conditions. 

In case, a total of 170 were accused of corruption. However, in the years-long probe and judicial trials, 55 have died. On the other hand, seven became witnesses and two confessed to the crime. Six are still absconding. 

During the hearing of the case in the CBI special court, 575 people testified on behalf of the prosecution, while 35 were from the defendants. The probe agency produced 15 documents in the case.

In the scam, large sums of money were illegally withdrawn in the name of transporting animals and arranging fodder for them in Bihar's animal husbandry department. The animals included bull, buffalo, cow, goat and sheep. 

The documents submitted by the department regarding the transportation were found to be fake. The vehicle numbers shown in the documents were of scooters, mopeds and motorcycles.

The cases occurred during the period of 1990-1996. The Bihar CAG had sent the information about the graft to the government time and again, but the government did not pay heed to it. 

(With inputs from agencies)