Ranchi: RJD chief Lalu Prasad was Saturday sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail by a CBI special court in a fodder scam case relating to fraudulent withdrawal of `89.27 lakh from the Deoghar Treasury 21 years ago.
CBI court judge Shiv Pal Singh, who had convicted Prasad, along with 10 others December 23, also imposed a fine of `10 lakhs on him for offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).
He was fined `5 lakh each under the IPC and the PCA, a CBI counsel said, adding that failure to pay the fine would entail another six months in jail.
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 `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 Friday, 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 Lalu has been jailed. He was sent to prison for five years September 30, 2013. Prasad was granted bail after having spent over two-and-a-half months in jail.
Will challenge CBI verdict: Kin
Patna: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav Saturday said a special CBI court verdict sentencing his father Lalu Prasad Yadav to three-and-a-half years in jail in a fodder scam case will be challenged in the high court. A bail plea will also be moved in the high court, Tejashwi told a media meet at the residence of his mother and former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi. “Lalu is not the name of a person but of an ideology. We, his followers, will not be cowed down,” said the 28-year-old Leader of Opposition in the state assembly.
Agencies
