Ranchi, Jan 6: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Ranchi will pronounce the quantum of punishment to former Bihar Chief Lalu Prasad and 10 others in fodder scam on Saturday at 2 PM. The case relates to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from Deoghar treasury 21 years ago.
Earlier on Friday, the RJD supremo appeared before the court of CBI special judge Shivpal Singh for the argument on the punishment through videoconferencing from Birsa Munda central jail, where he has been lodged since his conviction on December 23. In a written plea, he reportedly sought leniency due to his illness and old-age. The court concluded arguments on the quantum of punishment against Lalu and 10 others yesterday.
Besides Yadav, the court on Friday heard arguments on the punishment of RJD leader RK Rana, former IAS officers Phoolchand Singh, Mahesh Prasad, former government official Subir Bhattacharya, suppliers/transporters Tripurari Mohan Prasad, Sushil Kumar Sinha, Sunil Kumar Sinha, Raja Ram Joshi, Sanjay Agarwal and Sunil Gandhi.
The court deferred the sentencing in the case till January 5 on Thursday after hearing pre-sentencing arguments in alphabetical order of former IAS officer Beck Julius, Gopinath Das, RJD leader Jagdish Sharma, transporter/suppliers Jyoti Kumar Jha and Krishna Kumar Prasad. It had earlier deferred it till Thursday i.e., January 4 in the wake of the demise of advocate Vindeshwari Parsad.
On December 23, the special CBI court convicted the RJD chief and 14 others in the Deoghar Treasury case of the fodder scam. In the same case, former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra and six others were acquitted by the court.
The court had convicted Lalu for offences of cheating with criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act. Under the sections, Prasad can be sentenced to a minimum jail term of one year and maximum of seven years, his advocate Chittaranjan Prasad had said.
(Inputs from PTI)