New Delhi: Rashtriya Janata Dal Supremo and former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has been convicted on Tuesday by the special CBI court in Ranchi in the Doranda treasury embezzlement case.
Twenty-four other accused in the case have been acquitted by the court.
The Ranchi Doranda treasury scam is related to the illegal withdrawal of Rs 139.35 crore from the Doranda treasury and is the biggest fodder scam in the country.
The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on February 18, a CBI counsel said.
The court had on January 29 completed hearing arguments in the case and reserved its verdict. Prasad had earlier been sentenced to 14 years in jail in four other fodder scam cases. However, he had acquired bail in three other cases of the fodder scam-Deogarh, Chaibasa, and Ranchi's Dumka treasury.
The Rs 950 crore fodder scam took place in the Animal Husbandry department in Bihar when Prasad was the chief minister.
he challenged the previous four convictions in the Jharkhand High Court and is currently out on bail.
CBI had registered 53 separate cases to probe the fodder scam in 1996. The Doranda Treasury case, numbering RC 47 (A)/96, is the biggest of these and involves the largest number of accused (170), including Lalu Prasad, and the highest amount of embezzled money ( ₹139.5 crore).
Here's a timeline of Lalu Yadav's fodder scam case which rocked the country over two decades ago:
January 1996: The then Deputy Commissioner of Chaibasa Amit Khare at the Animal Husbandry Department conducts raids at multiple government offices unearthing the biggest scam of the country.
March 1996: Patna high court asks CBI to investigate the fodder scam. CBI registers FIR in the Chaibasa (in undivided Bihar) Treasury case.
June 1997: CBI files chargesheet and names the then Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav for the first time as an accused in the fodder scam case.
July 1997: Lalu Prasad quits as chief minister, appoints his wife Rabri Devi as CM. He surrenders before the CBI court and was sent to judicial custody.
April 2000: Charges were framed before the special CBI court. Rabri Devi's name was also included as co-accused. She was granted bail, Prasad's bail plea was rejected and he was remanded in judicial custody.
October 2001: Supreme Court transfers the case to Jharkhand High Court after Bihar’s bifurcation.
December 2006: Prasad and Rabri Devi acquitted of charges by a Patna lower court in the disproportionate assets case filed by the CBI.
June 2007: The special CBI court in Ranchi sentences 58 persons, including two nephews of the then Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, to jail terms ranging from two-and-a-half years to six years for fraudulently withdrawing Rs 48 crore from the Chaibasa Treasury in the 1990s.
March 2012: CBI court frames charges against Lalu Yadav and former CM Jagannath Mishra. The court charges the former with fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 47 lakh from the treasuries at Banka and Bhagalpur districts, where alleged forged and fake bills were drawn by the Animal Husbandry Department in 1995-96 when he was the Chief Minister.
September 2013: Lalu Prasad, Mishra, and 45 others were convicted in fodder scam case. This was Prasad's first conviction which came on September 30, 2013, in the Chaibasa treasury case related to fraudulent withdrawal of ₹37.70 crores. He was handed five years in prison. Lalu was sent to Ranchi jail and was disqualified as a Lok Sabha member. He was also debarred from contesting elections and including those of the Assembly/Council, for six years from the date of their release from jail.
December 2013: The Supreme Court grants bail to Lalu Prasad.
May 2017: Trial resumes in fodder scam case following orders from the Supreme Court on May 8 to separately try them in Deoghar Treasury case.
December 23, 2017: CBI special court finds RJD chief Lalu Prasad and 17 others guilty in the Rs 900 crore fodder scam case and he was sent to Birsa Munda Jail in Jharkhand.
January 2018: Lalu Yadav was sentenced to 3.5 years in jail by a special court in Ranchi in the second case related to fraudulent withdrawal of ₹89.27 lakh from the Deoghar treasury. Prasad’s third conviction also came in the same month in the Chaibasa treasury case, related to the fraudulent withdrawal of ₹33.13 crores. He was sentenced to five years of imprisonment in this case.
March 2018: A court in Ranchi convicts Lalu in the fourth case linked to the fodder scam. Prasad was pronounced guilty for fraudulent withdrawal of ₹3.76 crores from Dumka treasury and handed him 14 years in prison and slapped a fine of ₹60 lakh on him. However, his predecessor Jagannath Mishra is acquitted.
July 2019: Jharkhand High Court grants bail to Lalu in the fodder scam case related to the Deoghar treasury.
October 2020: Jharkhand High Court grants bail to Lalu in the fodder scam case related to the Chaibasa treasury.
December 2020: High Court defers hearing Lalu's bail plea hearing by six weeks after a request from his counsel. Devarshi Mandal, Prasad’s counsel, says he needs six weeks to respond to a supplementary affidavit filed by CBI.
January 2021: Lalu admitted to AIIMS after his health condition worsens.
February 2021: High Court rejects Lalu’s bail plea in the Dumka treasury case. HC says the RJD supremo has to serve two more months in jail to complete half of the tenure of his total sentence and can reapply for bail after that.
April 2021: Lalu was granted bail in the Dumka treasury case.
April 30, 2021: Lalu Prasad walked out of the jail on Thursday after the completion of bail formalities in the Dumka Treasury case at a special CBI court in Ranchi. Prasad's lawyers furnish two sureties of Rs 1 lakh each and also deposit Rs 5 lakh penalty amount each in two cases- under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections and Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.
January 2022: On January 29 special CBI court completes hearing arguments in the Doranda Treasury case and reserved its verdict.
February 15, 2022: CBI court announces verdict and pronounces Lalu Yadav guilty in Doranda treasury case. The quantum of punishment is to be announced on Feb 18.
(with PTI inputs)