Ex-CM Mishra, five others acquitted.
In a major setback to the RJD, a special CBI court in Ranchi on Saturday convicted former Bihar Chief Minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and 15 others in the decades-old fodder scam case. The court will pronounce the quantum of punishment on January 3 next year.
Apart from Lalu Prasad, the court convicted politicians Jagdish Sharma and RK Rana, IAS officers Beck Julius, Phoolchand Singh and Mahesh Prasad and government officials Krishna Kumar and Subir Bhattacharya. Some private individuals were also convicted.
However, Special CBI judge Shivpal Singh acquitted former Bihar CM Jagannath Mishra and five other accused in the same case, which pertains to alleged fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from Deoghar Government Treasury between 1991 and 1994.
The special court acquitted 80-year-old Mishra and five others -- former Public Accounts Committee chairman Druv Bhagat, former Indian Revenue Service officer A C Choudhary, fodder suppliers Saraswati Chandra and Sadhana Singh and former minister Vidya Sagar Nishad.
After the decision, Lalu Prasad and the other convicts were taken to be lodged in Ranchi's Birsa Munda Jail. Incidentally, the Bihar strongman is also facing three other cases related to the fodder scam.
A charge sheet was filed against 38 persons on October 27, 1997 after the Patna High Court ordered an inquiry. Eleven of them died while three turned approver. Two other accused confessed and were convicted in 2006-07.
Lalu had earlier been sentenced to five years in jail and fined Rs 25 lakh for fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.50 crore from the Chaibasa treasury in October 2013. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court in December 2013.
However, due to the conviction, Lalu was disqualified from Parliament and is banned from contesting elections.
Earlier in the day, before the judge renounced the verdict in the jam-packed court, Lalu expressed his "respect" for the country's judicial system.
"We trust and respect the judiciary. We will not let BJP's conspiracies work. The way things happened in the 2G case, they way they happened for Ashok Chavan, the same will happen for me," he told reporters.
RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh told reporters Lalu will challenge the verdict in the Jharkhand High Court.
The latest verdict has come as a huge setback to the family-run RJD, with RJD leaders suggesting that in Lalu's absence his younger son Tejashwi, a former Deputy Chief Minister, could lead the party.
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