Fodder scam: Lalu Yadav has been convicted for swindling money from the Dumka treasury.
Bihar politician and RJD chief Lalu Yadav was today convicted in the fourth case linked to the fodder scam while his predecessor Jagannath Mishra has been acquitted by a Ranchi court in Jharkhand. The multi-million-rupee fodder scam involves the embezzlement of government funds in Bihar meant for cattle fodder and surfaced in the 1990s when Lalu Yadav was chief minister of undivided Bihar. Apart from the two formers chief ministers, 30 others are accused in the case. In 2013, Lalu Yadav was convicted in the first fodder scam case and sentenced to jail for five years. On December 23, 2017, he was convicted in the second case and was sentenced to three-and-half years in jail. In a third case, he was sentenced to jail for five years and was related to money swindled from the Chaibasa treasury. The fourth case that the court heard today is a case related to Rs 3.13 crore swindled from the Dumka treasury between December 1995 and January 1996.
A look at the timeline of Fodder Scam case:
January 1996: Fodder scam surfaces after Deputy Commissioner Amit Khare raids offices of animal husbandry department, seizing documents showing syphoning of funds by non-existent companies in the name of supplying fodder.
March 11, 1996: Patna High Court directs CBI to probe the scam. Supreme Court upholds the order.
March 27, 1996: CBI registers FIR in Chaibasa treasury case.
June 23, 1997: CBI files charge sheet and makes Lalu Yadav accused.
July 30, 1997: RJD chief Lalu Yadav surrenders before CBI court, sent to judicial custody.
April 5, 2000: Charges framed before special CBI court.
October 5, 2001: Supreme Court transfers fodder scam cases to Jharkhand after the creation of new state.
February, 2002: Trial begins in Ranchi special CBI court.
August 13, 2013: Supreme Court rejects Lalu Yadav's plea seeking transfer of the trial court judge hearing the case.
September 17, 2013: Special CBI court reserves judgement.
September 30, 2013: Two former Bihar Chief Ministers Lalu Yadav and Jagannath Mishra along with 43 others convicted by special CBI judge Pravas Kumar Singh.
October 3, 2013: Lalu Yadav sentenced to five years in jail, fined Rs 25 lakh. Jagannath Mishra gets four years in jail.
December, 2013: Lalu Yadav gets bail.
November, 2014: The Jharkhand High Court drops the conspiracy charge against Lalu Yadav in another case related to the fodder scam, on the grounds that a person cannot be tried twice for the same offense.
May 2017: The Supreme Court reinstates criminal conspiracy charges against him.
December 23, 2017: CBI special court finds Lalu Yadav and 17 others guilty. Lalu Yadav was immediately taken into custody.
January 5, 2018: Special CBI court deferrs pronouncement of quantum of punishment.
January 6, 2018: Lalu Yadav sentenced to 3.5 years in
jail by a special court in Ranchi.
March 16, 2018: CBI special court defers the judgement in the fourth case of multi-crore fodder scam against former Bihar chief ministers
Lalu Yadav and Jagannath Mishra.
March 19, 2018: A court in Jharkhand's Ranchi convicts Lalu Yadav in the fourth case linked to the fodder scam, his predecessor Jagannath Mishra acquitted.
March 24, 2018: A court in Jharkhand's Ranchi sentences Lalu Yadav to 14 years in jail in the fourth case linked to the fodder scam. Lalu Yadav also been fined Rs 60 lakh.
(With inputs from PTI)