Lalu convicted in fodder case, jailed, to lose seat

In a momentous verdict for Indian politics and the future of one of the nation’s top leaders, Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav was on Monday convicted and sent to jail by a special CBI court in Jharkhand along with 38 other accused, including fellow former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra, in the `900-crore fodder scam case dating back to 1996. This conviction disqualifies him from being a member of Parliament and makes him ineligible to stand for elections for at least six years. Mr Yadav, sitting MP from Saran in Bihar and a former railway minister, also earlier a two-time Bihar CM, was pronounced guilty by judge Prabhas Kumar Singh in Ranchi, Jharkhand’s capital, in a case related to the fraudulent withdrawal of `37 crores from the treasury in Chaibasa (in Jharkhand after Bihar’s bifurcation in 2000) by the state animal husbandry department. The quantum of punishment will be announced on October 3. With a high likelihood of his being sentenced to three to five years in this case, he will be the first high-profile politician in the country to lose his Parliament seat as the Centre is likely to withdraw the ordinance intended to protect convicted legislators. The RJD chief would have been saved from immediate disqualification as an MP if the ordinance recently approved by the Union Cabinet was signed by President Pranab Mukherjee. However, not only did the President seem to have reservations, the problem got compounded with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi attacking the ordinance and calling for its immediate withdrawal. This seems to have virtually sealed Mr Yadav’s fate. Mr Yadav and Congress MP Rasheed Masood are likely to be the first two politicians to be disqualified following the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that was sought to be negated by the ordinance. Mr Masood, who was health minister in the V.P. Singh government, was held guilty of fraudulently nominating undeserving candidates to MBBS seats allotted to Tripura in medical colleges across the country from the Central pool. In Ranchi, the CBI court granted bail to seven other accused in the case, including former Bihar animal husbandry minister Vidya Sagar Nishad and former MLA Dhruv Bhagat, two IAS officers and three fodder suppliers, who are expected to get punishment of less than three years. This case — RC20-A/96 — is the first of the six cases that Mr Yadav faces in the infamous scam that reached its end with the conviction of 45 accused, including two former CMs. Both Mr Yadav and Mr Mishra were taken to Birsa Munda Jail at Hotwar near Ranchi soon after the verdict was announced at 11 am. Since the court will be closed between October 5 and 25, Mr Yadav and the other convicts will not be able to appeal for bail. Mr Yadav, 65, appeared calm and refused to answer any questions by journalists after the verdict. He was accompanied by three RJD MPs, several senior leaders, his younger son Tejaswi Yadav, estranged brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav and over 300 RJD supporters. At the jail, he was reportedly allotted a VIP room with access to TV and newspapers. Mr Mishra, on reaching the jail, is learnt to have complained of high blood pressure, and was shifted to the emergency ward of Ranchi Medical College and Hospital, where he was later shifted to a special cottage. Mr Mishra, in his 80s, had undergone surgery recently. “We will appeal in the high court. We have full faith in the judiciary,” Tejaswi Yadav told journalists after the verdict, fighting back tears. “It is a conspiracy and we will also go to the people’s court,” he added. RJD MP Ramkripal Yadav was in tears in public after the verdict. An alert was sounded in Bihar before the verdict came as the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) government feared that a disturbance might be created by Mr Yadav’s supporters.