Ranchi: A special CBI court in Ranchi will pronounce the quantum of punishment against former Chief Minister of Bihar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and 15 others on Friday in a fodder scam related case.
The Ranchi CBI Court on Wednesday found RJD leaders Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Tejashwi Yadav and Manoj Jha guilty of contempt of court. It served contempt notices to senior leaders of the RJD and the Congress for criticising the December 23 conviction of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in a fodder scam case on television.
CBI judge Shiv Pal Singh directed senior RJD leaders Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Shivanand Tiwari and Lalu Prasad's son Tejashwi Yadav and Congress leader Manish Tewari to personally appear before the court on January 23.
Tejashwi Yadav is the leader of opposition in the Bihar Assembly.
On December 23, CBI judge Shivpal Singh, found Lalu and others guilty of fraudulently withdrawing Rs 89.23 lakh from Deoghar treasury by furnishing fake bills and vouchers related to fodder procurement between 1991 and 1994.
Police have made elaborate security arrangements around the court campus as Lalu and other convicts will be present during the hearing.
The special CBI court had acquitted another former Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra, 80, and five others – former Public Accounts Committee chairman Druv Bhagat, former Indian Revenue Service officer AC Choudhary, fodder suppliers Saraswati Chandra and Sadhana Singh and former minister Vidya Sagar Nishad.
On December 23 Lalu Prasad and other political leaders Jagdish Sharma and R K Rana, IAS officers Beck Julius, Phoolchand Singh and Mahesh Prasad, and government officials Krishna Kumar and Subir Bhattacharya were convicted by the court. The others convicted are suppliers/ transporters Tripurari Mohan Prasad, Sushil Kumar Sinha, Sunil Kumar Sinha, Raja Ram Joshi, Gopinath Das, Sanjay Agarwal, Jyoti Kumar Jha and Sunil Gandhi.
In 1996, the Patna High Court ordered an inquiry into the fodder scam cases and a charge sheet in the Deoghar treasury case was filed against 38 people on October 27, 1997. Eleven of them died and three turned approvers while two other accused confessed and were convicted in 2006-07, a CBI official said.
The accused faced charges under various sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Lalu Yadav was sent to Birsa Munda central prison immediately after the conviction. This is the second fodder scam case in which the RJD leader has been convicted. Earlier, in 2013 the CBI court had sentenced him to five years in jail in a similar case of fraudulent withdrawal.
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