Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad and 15 others were found guilty of corruption in a second case pertaining to the fodder scam by a special CBI court and the justice is delayed but not denied. The special judge pronounced the verdict in a packed courtroom in the case pertaining to the alleged fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 84.5 lakh from Deoghar district (now in Jharkhand) treasury between 1994 and 1996 when Prasad was the Chief Minister of Bihar. The court will pronounce the quantum of sentence on January 3. Thus Lalu is taken into custody and the 69-year-old former-CM and other convicts were immediately taken into custody and sent to the Birsa Munda jail, where security has been tightened. Former Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra was acquitted. Of the six fodder scam cases registered against Mr Prasad, this was the second case. As a cow lover Lalu has gone to the extent of causing a fraud in fodder as well and it is a food for thought during the year end.
MR Jayanthi
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
