Bihar sounds alert ahead of Lalu Yadav verdict

Authorities in Bihar have sounded an alert across the state Monday, apprehending trouble after the court pronounced verdict in a multi-crore fodder scam case involving Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.

A Special CBI court in Ranchi, Jharkhand, delivered its verdict in the case Monday, holding Lalu Prasad guilty. However, the state authorities sounded alert well in advance fearing backlash from RJD supporters. "The police headquarters has alerted all the superintendents of police and asked them to keep a close watch after the court verdict on Lalu Prasad in the fodder scam case," a police official said.

According to police, alert was sounded following an intelligence report that Lalu's supporters, including RJD workers and leaders, would take to streets or go on rampage if court verdict went against him. Additional security forces have been deployed in sensitive areas to check and control any attempt to create violence after the court verdict, police said.

Special CBI Judge PK Singh pronounced the judgment in the case No. RC 20 A/96 Monday morning. Lalu Prasad was forced to quit the chief minister's post in 1997 when his name figured in the CBI investigations in the scam, which surfaced in 1996.

The multi-million animal husbandry department scam, popularly known as the fodder scam, accuses Lalu Prasad and Jagannath Mishra, both former chief ministers of Bihar, and ministers from the department, two IAS officials and others, of fraudulent withdrawal of Rs.37.70 crore from Chaibasa district treasury. After the diision of Bihar, the district is now in Jharkhand.