Ranchi, Dec 23: A special CBI court in Ranchi will pronounce its judgment in one of the three multi-crore fodder scam cases against Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, Jagannath Mishra, and 20 others today. As the verdict will be announced today by the CBI court, the former Bihar chief minister is hoping for a 2G and Adarsh scam-like judgment in the fodder scam case in which all the accused were acquitted. “Jaisa 2G mein hua, Ashok Chavan ka hua vaisa hi humara bhi hoga,” Lalu Yadav was quoted as saying by ANI.
Lalu Prasad Yadav and his son Tejashwi Yadav reached Ranchi on Friday to appear in the CBI court. “I do hope that I will get justice as in the 2G spectrum case … I have full faith in the judiciary but whatever verdict will come, I will abide by it,” Lalu Yadav told the media persons upon reaching Ranchi. (Explained: What is Fodder Scam?)
Expressing full faith in the judiciary, he said, “It is the BJP, the RSS and Nitish Kumar who are behind all this,” and added: “They want me to be sent to jail so that they will have no political opponent, but they don’t know that every worker of the RJD is a Lalu Yadav. We will not let BJP`s conspiracies work.”
Lalu Yadav’s lawyer said that hearing in the fodder scam case was completed on December 13 in a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court of Ranchi. The court fixed the date of verdict on December 23 and asked all the accused to present in the court. There were a total of 35 accused in the fodder scam case, out of which 11 died during the course of the trial.
The multi-million fodder scam case pertains to the alleged fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 84.5 lakh from the Deoghar district between 1994 and 1996 when Lalu Prasad Yadav was the Chief Minister of Bihar. On September 30, 2013, Lalu was held guilty in the first of the three cases in the scam and was handed over a five-year jail term. Lalu was granted bail in December 2013.
The accused in the fodder scam face charges under IPC sections 120B, 409, 418, 420, 467, 468, 471, 477 (A), 201, 511 and under Prevention of Corruption Act section 13 (1) D.