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The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has been sentenced to 5 years imprisionment and directed to pay ₹60 lakh as fine in the fodder scam case by a CBI special court in Ranchi.

Judge CK Shashi had pronounced verdict on Feb,15th in which Prasad, already convicted in four other cases of the fodder scam, was held as an accused in the fifth and final case that peratained to fraudulent withdrawal of ₹139.35 crore from Doranda treasury.

“Currently, Prasad has been taken in judicial custody. We have put up a petition before the court regarding his health condition. He has been under treatment of RIMS and AIIMS. Now whether the court would send him to jail or RIMS that will be decided post lunch," Prasad's counsel Anant Kumar had stated.

On January 29, the court had completed hearing arguments in the ₹139.35 crore Doranda treasury embezzlement case involving Prasad and had reserved its verdict.

The court of Special CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) Judge SK Shashi had completed the hearing against 99 accused, including Prasad, which was underway since February last year.

After arguments were completed on January 29, the court had asked all the accused to be physically present on the day of the verdict.

Background -

The fodder scam came to light in January 1996 after a raid at the Animal Husbandry department. The CBI had named Prasad as an accused in June 1997. The agency framed charges against Prasad and Mishra, also a former chief minister.

In September 2013, the trial court convicted Prasad, Mishra and 45 others in one of the cases related to the fodder scam and Prasad was imprisoned in Ranchi jail.

In December 2013, Supreme Court granted bail to Prasad in the case, while in December 2017, the CBI court found him and 15 others guilty and sent them to Birsa Munda prison. The Jharkhand high court had granted bail to Prasad in April 2021.

Of the original 170 accused in the case, 55 have died, seven have become government witnesses, two have accepted the charges against them and six are absconding.

Apart from Prasad, former MP Jagdish Sharma, the then Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Dhruv Bhagat, Animal Husbandry secretary Beck Julius and Animal Husbandry assistant director Dr KM Prasad are the key accused.

The ₹950-crore scam relates to fraudulent withdrawal of