Ranchi: Lalu Prasad Yadav, the Rashtriya Janata Dal Chief, has been sentenced to seven years in jail for the fourth fodder scam case.

According the case, the scam involves embezzlement of government funds in Bihar which were meant for cattle fodder. The scam to the tune of multi-million-rupee surfaced in the 1990s when Lalu Yadav was Chief Minister of undivided Bihar.

The fourth fodder scam is related to the amount of Rs. 3.13 withdrawn from the Dumka treasury between December 1995 and January 1996.

Along with Lalu Yadav, there are more 31 accused in the same case which includes another former chief minister Jagannath Mishra, who got acquittal by the court on Monday.

The lawyers of Yadav say that he expected relief in the Dumka treasury case due to the fact that the other former Chief Minister got acquittal.

Due to his conviction, Lalu Yadav will not be able to contest elections or even hold public office for years to come. But in his absence, his son Tejashwi Yadav has led the party in the state and was seen to prove himself up to the task, when the RJD retained its two key seats in bypolls held in Bihar.

Lalu Prasad Yadav was convicted in the first fodder scam case in the year 2013 and was sentenced to jail for term of five years. He was also convicted in a second case on December 23, 2017 and was sentenced to more than 3 years in jail. And in the third case, he was given a jail term of five years, the last one was related to money withdrawn from the Chaibasa treasury.

Lalu faces more two cases. He is booked in a case in Ranchi and another one in Patna.

The case related to fodder scam was handed over to the CBI to probe on the Patna High Court’s order. Then after that the bulk of the cases were transferred to Ranchi after Jharkhand was separated out from Bihar in the year 2000.

Lalu Prasad held the office of Chief Minister of Bihar during the period of 1990-1997. Under the UPA government, Lalu was assigned to the post of Cabinet Minister in the Ministry of Railways in the year 2004. During his political career, he has been an active politician with humor filled rhetoric at times.

He started his political career by becoming a leader in the Patna University at the student level. His long term friend Nitish Kumar is now turned a foe by supporting BJP at the Centre. With the corruption charges leveled against him followed by his conviction, the Bihar states’ political scenario has completely changed. As of now, Nitish Kumar is the Chief Minister of Bihar with good influence in the state.

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