Fodder case-3: Lalu Prasad sentenced to 5 years' jail

RANCHI: The ghost of fodder scam returned to torment Lalu Prasad a third time on Thursday when a special CBI court sentenced him along with another former Bihar CM Jagannath Mishra and others to five years in jail in a case related to the embezzlement of Rs 37.62 crore of public money which was supposed to be spent on the upkeep of livestock. The court which fined Lalu and Mishra Rs 10 lakh handed down similar prison term and penalties to former MPs Jagdish Sharma and R K Rana.Jharkhand ex-chief secretary Sajal Chakrabarty also was found guilty, sentenced to four years' rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 2 lakh along with two former senior IAS officers Phool Chand Singh and Mahesh Prasad. All the three had been convicted earlier too for pilfering public money meant for animal husbandry department. Lalu is currently serving a term of three and a half years at Birsa Munda Central Jail in a fodder scam related case related to embezzlement of money from the Deoghar treasury. After his first conviction in a fodder scam case, which related to a similar larceny of public funds also from Chaibasa treasury, the RJD chief was in October 2013 sentenced to five years but managed to obtain bail from the SC. Special CBI judge S S Prasad said Lalu's prison terms would run concurrently and the time already spent in jail in connection with this specific case would be deducted from his term in prison. Despite the fact that Lalu had already been convicted twice, the third conviction should hurt him. Three convictions from three different courts can undercut his claim that he was victim of a political frame -up. Also, conviction of former chief minister Jagannath Mishra is a blow to the allegation of Lalu camp that the RJD strongman was being penalised because he belonged to a socially backward caste. Furious RJD supporters had levelled the charge in December when Lalu Prasad was convicted while Mishra, a Brahmin, was acquitted. Significantly, Mishra had been convicted along with Lalu when the court pronounced Lalu guilty the first time in a fodder scam-related case in 2013. He is accused in three other cases arising from the mega swindle of public money which went on for decades before being busted by alert officers - something which put a spanner in the works of the former Bihar CM when he was being seriously considered as a PM probable. The scam, which saw a nexus of politicians, bureaucrats and officials of animal husbandry department embezzling almost Rs 900 crore belonging to the animal husbandry department which was supposed to be spent in what now constitutes Jharkhand, had started on a modest scale.