Patna, Dec 22: The Ranchi Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court will today announce the quantum of punishment for RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in connection with the fodder scam. The hearing was completed on Friday and the sentencing will be pronounced via video conferencing. The CBI court found former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad and 14 others guilty in a fodder scam case. While the CBI court convicted the RJD chief, it acquitted former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra and six others.
The fodder scam is the alleged fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 84.5 lakh from the Deoghar treasury between 1994-1996 on the pretext of buying fodder for cattle when Lalu Prasad Yadav was the Chief Minister of Bihar. Overall, the fodder scam is the alleged fraudulent withdrawal of more than Rs 900 crore from the Chaibasa treasury for nearly 20 years.
January 1996: Amit Khare, Deputy Commissioner conducted raids in the Animal Husbandry offices and brought the scam into the light. The documents that proved the forgeries were seized.
March 11, 1996: The CBI was ordered by Patna HC to investigate the matter.
March 27, 1996: The FIR for Chaibasa Treasury Case was filed by the CBI.
June 23, 1997: The charge sheet was filed against the accused. A total of 63 cases were filed under IPC for forgery and conspiracy.
July 30, 1997: Lalu was sent to judicial custody after he surrendered before CBI court.
April 5, 2000: Rabri Devi’s name was also included in the list of accused but she was granted bail, however, Lalu’s plea for bail was rejected.
October 5, 2001: Jharkhand was to handle the cases, directed SC. This decision followed after a new state was declared.
February 2002: The Special CBI Court Ranchi began the trail for the scam.
December 2006: Lalu and his wife Rabri Devi are freed from CBI charge on disproportionate assets.
June 2007: The verdict for Chaibasa Treasury in the 1990s which concerned with the illegal withdrawal of Rs 48 crore sentenced Yadav’s two nephews and 56 people more for jail terms which ranged from two and a half to six years.
March 2012: Lalu Yadav and Mishra are charged after six months from their appearance in SBI special court. Yadav gets charged for forging bills from Animal Husbandry Department when he was the CM. He was also charged of illegally withdrawing Rs 47 lakh from Banka and Bhagalpur treasuries.
August 13, 2013: Lalu Yadav’s plea for transferring the judge of trial court who was hearing the case get’s rejected.
September 17, 2014: The Special CBI court judgment gets reserved.
September 30, 2014: Special CBI Judge convicts Lalu, Mishra and 45 more. According to the verdict, Lalu gets disqualified as Lok Sabha member and both of them were not eligible to stand for any election from (including Assembly/council) for six years calculating from their release date from jail.
November 2014: The CBI challenged the Jharkhand HC order for revoking the four pending cases against Lalu Yadav stating the reason the one person could not be put on trial for more than once for similar cases. The court supported CBI plea to continue the trial in two sections.
November 2016: Mishra was accused by the Supreme Court for alleged delaying appeal filed by the CBI. The decision on revoking of the other four pending cases against him was also challenged by the SC.
May 2017: Lalu Prasad Yadav, Jagannath Mishra and others who have also been accused will undergo separate trials for withdrawal of 84.53 lakh and forging the records of Deogarh Treasury.
December 13, 2017: The Ranchi CBI Court carried on the hearing of the case. The case number is RC-64A/96.
December 23, 2017: Ranchi CBI Court convicts Lalu Prasad Yadav. Reserves sentencing for January 3, 2018.
January 3, 2018: CBI court defers sentencing till January 4 in the wake of the demise of advocate Vindeshwari Parsad.
January 4: Sentencing defers sentencing till January 5.
January 5: Hearing in the quantum of sentence completed. Sentencing deferred until January 6.