Ranchi: Two Former Bihar Chief Ministers, Mr.  Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mr. Jagannath Mishra have been convicted in one of the cases pertaining to  the multi-crore Fodder Scam Case by a Special CBI Court in Ranchi. They along with 44 others have been found guilty in the case  and their punishment would be announced on Thursday (October 3).
Later, 37 convicts including Mr. Lalu Prasad  were taken into judicial custody.  Mr. Lalu Prasad was taken to Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi. Lalu appeared calm and did not take any questions as his car sped away to the jail located at Hotwar on the outskirts of Ranchi, adjacent to the National Games village.
Among the convicted, eight persons, including two politicians -Vidya Sagar Nishad and Dhruv Bhagat, one IAS officer and four suppliers,who have been sentenced to between one to three years of imprisonment are applying for bail later in the day. They have also been fined 50 thousand to 50 lakh Rupees. Lalu Prasad and others are accused in five cases of Fodder Scam.
This Case of Fodder Scam relates to illegal withdrawal of 37 crores and 70 lakhs rupees from Chaibasa government treasury. The infamous fodder scam came into light because one thousand cores of rupees were illegally withdrawn from various government treasuries, mostly from districts that are now in Jharkhand.
Here withdrawals were made exceeding allocations by many times and by producing fake bills. This happened by prolonged criminal collusion of government officers of Animal Husbandry department and contractors and suppliers with the blessings and connivance of political masters.
There was mixed reaction to the judgement and conviction.
“This is a judicial process and we would not like to react on judicial process. Judicial process should be allowed to take its independent course,” Congress leader Rashid Alvi said the party respects the court verdict.
“For the judgement of any court we have respect of this judgement also. Law does not discriminate between person to person”, BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy termed the verdict as historic.
“It is a historic judgement. It is a judgement for Bihar. It is a justice day of Bihar. It is justice day for the country against corrupt politicians”, CPI(M) spokesperson Brinda Karat on the judgement: