Fodder scam: Special CBI court to pronounce verdict in fourth case against Lalu Prasad Yadav today

PATNA: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Ranchi will on Monday pronounce the verdict in the fourth case related to multi-million rupees fodder scam involving former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and several others. On Saturday, the court had deferred the judgemnent in the case.

The special CBI court had on Friday postponed the judgement in view of the Lalu Prasad's counsel filing a petition under 319 CrPC asking the then three officials of the Accountant General (in the 1990s) be made a party to the case. The court had on Thursday too deferred the judgement in the case.

The court took on record Lalu’s petition seeking to issue summons to the then Accountant General as accused and listed it for the verdict on Friday.

The RJD supremo, who has been admitted to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) after falling sick in the jail on Saturday, would not be present in the court.

Prasad and others are accused of fraudulently withdrawing Rs. 3.13 crore from Dumka treasury between December 1995 and January 1996, when the former was the chief minister of undivided Bihar.

Prasad is already serving a jail term of 13.5 years in three fodder cases and lodged in the Birsa Munda jail in Ranchi. The case is related to alleged withdrawal of Rs 3.13 crore from the Dumka treasury when Prasad was the chief minister of Bihar.Besides Prasad, former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra and 29 people, including former IAS officers and some officials are also accused in the case.

On Friday, the Special CBI court had made three former bureaucrats of Bihar accountant-general`s office accused in the fodder scam. The court issued summons to former Bihar Accountant General P.K. Mukhopadhyay, former Deputy Accountant General B.N. Jha and former Senior Director General of Accounts Office Pramod Kumar on the request of Prasad, who had sought a trial against the three former bureaucrats.

(With inputs from ANI)