Ranchi: RJD chief Lalu Prasad was today
sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail by a CBI special
court in a fodder scam case relating to fraudulent withdrawal
of Rs 89.27 lakh from the Deoghar Treasury 21 years ago.
CBI court judge Shiv Pal Singh, who had convicted Prasad,
along with 10 others on December 23, also imposed a fine of Rs
10 lakh on him for two cases in the scam.
He was fined Rs 5 lakh for each case, failing which he
would serve another six months in jail, a CBI counsel said.
The court had convicted Prasad for offences of cheating,
along with criminal conspiracy, under the Indian Penal Code
(IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The scam is related to withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from
the Deogarh Treasury between 1990 and 1994 when Prasad was the
chief minister of Bihar.
The 69-year-old RJD supremo, in a written plea yesterday,
had sought leniency from the CBI court citing illness and old
age, according to his counsel Chittaranjan Prasad.
The RJD went into a huddle immediately after the
pronouncement of the sentence.
RJD sources said that the party would appeal against the
verdict.
This is the second fodder scam case in which Prasad has
been jailed.
He was sent to prison for five years on September 30,
2013.
Prasad was granted bail by the Supreme Court after having
spent over two-and-a-half months in jail.
PTI
