A special CBI court on Saturday Dec 23,2017 found former Bihar chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav guilty of charges in one of the six cases lodged against the leader in the 1996 fodder scam.
The court also found 15 others guilty in the case. On the other hand, the court acquitted six others, including former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra. Lalu was taken into custody immediately after the verdict was announced by CBI judge Shivpal Singh.
The case pertains to a scam which emerged in the 90’s involving siphoning of large sums of money from government treasuries in Deogarh and other places to the tune of Rs 89.27 lakhs between 1991-94. Of the six cases in the scam, this was the second in which verdict was pronounced. The RJD chief was also held guilty on September 30, 2013 in the first case, but the Supreme Court granted him bail in December that year. In the aftermath of the verdict, he was disqualified from Parliament and was banned from contesting elections.
Here are some of the cases against Lalu and his family
Fodder case
In 1997, Lalu Prasad was charged under sections of the IPC for forgery, criminal conspiracy and under the Prevention of Corruption Act, in connection with the fodder scam. The CBI, which was probing allegations of embezzlement of government treasury funds to non-existent companies for purchase and supply of cattle fodder in Bihar, had found irregularities worth Rs 950-crore.
The case forced Lalu, then CM of the state, to resign. It was during this period that he disassociated himself from the Janata Dal and formed his own party, the RJD. On resigning, he installed his wife, Rabri Devi as chief minister.
Lalu was arrested and lodged in Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi. He was sentenced to five years
in jail, and disqualified as an MP.
Disappropriation case
In 1998, a disproportionate assets case was lodged against Lalu. The Income Tax department, which claimed Lalu had pocketed Rs 46 lakh from the government treasury, also named Rabri as a co-accused for abetting the crime.
The duo surrendered to a CBI court in 2000. Rabri, who was CM at the time, was granted bail. Lalu, too, was later granted bail by the Patna High Court.
They were acquitted in the case in 2006.
IRCTC case
The CBI is probing alleged irregularities in tenders allotted to Sujata Hotels, a private company, for development, maintenance and operation of two railway hotels BNR Ranchi and Puri. The case, which has come to be known as the IRCTC scam, dates back to when Lalu was railways minister under the UPA government in 2004. The CBI alleged that as quid pro quo, Rabri and Tejashwi were given prime property in Patna at throwaway prices.
The CBI alleges Lalu abused his position and favoured Sujata Hotel, a company owned by directors Vinay and Vijay Kochhar. In return, he acquired “high-value premium land” through a benami company, Delight Marketing Company, for Rs 1.5 crore. Between 2010 and 2014, the ownership of the company was gradually handed to Rabri and Tejashwi. Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate earlier this month, attached a three-acre plot worth Rs 44.7 crore in Patna, which allegedly belongs to RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s family and where one of the biggest malls in the city was to come up. The property, provisionally attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, is also the subject of a CBI inquiry and members of the family have been questioned by central agencies
Money laundering case against Misa
Lalu’s daughter Misa Bharti and her husband Shailesh Kumar are being investigated by the CBI in a money laundering case. It is alleged that the couple is connected to a firm, Ms Mishail Printers and Packers Private Limited, which violated the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
Tej Pratap
Recently, a case was filed against Lalu’s son, Tej Pratap Yadav, for omitting details of land owned by him in his affidavit during the 2015 Assembly polls. The case was filed in September 2017, by BJP MLC Suraj Nandan Prasad. In his petition, Prasad alleged Tej “deliberately hid” details of land held by him. A motor showroom is now run from the property in the name of Tej Pratap’s family’s company “LARA Distributors Pvt Ltd,”
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