Fodder scam: Lalu Prasad, Jagdish Sharma disqualified from Lok Sabha

mangaloretoday.com

New Delhi, Oct 22: Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad and Janata Dal (United) leader Jagdish Sharma have been disqualified from the Lok Sabha after being convicted in fodder scam case on Monday.

 

Lalu was on October 3 sentenced to five years imprisonment in a 17-year-old fodder scam case by the court after on the charges of corruption and other charges. The sentencing by special CBI judge Pravas Kumar Singh disqualified Lalu Prasad from Parliament and rendered him ineligible for contesting elections for 11 years.

65-year-old Prasad and Sharma are currently lodged in the Birsa Munda Central Jail.

Lalu was one of the 45 people facing charges in the RC 20 A/96 case and had been charged with fraudulent withdrawing Rs 37.7 crore on fake fodder bills from Chaibasa treasury in the 1990s. Chaibasa was then part of undivided Bihar and is now in Jharkhand. There were a total of 56 accused in the case. But during the trial, seven accused died, two turned approver, one admitted to the crime and one was discharged.

Lalu quit as Bihar chief minister on July 25, 1997 when his name figured in the CBI investigations in the scam, which surfaced in 1996. After stepping down, he rather surprising pulled his wife Rabri Devi out of the "chowka" (kitchen) and made her the chief minister and continued to rule through proxy.