The Special CBI Court has sentenced RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav to five years in prison in the third fodder scam case on Wednesday.
Special CBI court judge S S Prasad had earlier in the day convicted Lalu and 50 other accused in the case, which pertains to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 33.67 crore from Chaibasa treasury in 1992-1993.
Former Bihar CM Jagannath Mishra was also found guilty and awarded a five year jail term for embezzling funds from the Chaibasa treasury. Both Lalu and Mishra were also fined Rs 5 lakh each by the Ranchi court.
The allegation is that fake allotment letters were used to withdraw Rs 33.67 crore instead of the state sanctioned amount of Rs 7.10 lakh.
In all there are 56 accused, including former Bihar minister Vidyasagar Nishad, ex-Bihar Assembly PAC chief Jagdish Sharma, former MLAs Dhruv Bhagat and R K Rana and three ex-IAS officers. Two government servants and four fodder suppliers were also acquitted today.
Soon after the verdict, the RJD said the special CBI court order was not final and it would appeal in the high court and, if necessary, in the Supreme Court.
Leader of the opposition in Bihar Assembly and Lalu Prasad's son Tejashwi Yadav also accused chief minister Nitish Kumar and the BJP of framing his father.
Lalu Yadav was first convicted in a fodder scam case in 2013 and was awarded five years' imprisonment. He faces another two scam cases for illegal withdrawal of Rs 3.97 crore from the Dumka Treasury and Rs 184 crore from the Doranda Treasury.