Lalu`s statement recorded in a fodder scam case

Ranchi: RJD supremo Lalu Prasad on Monday recorded his statement in a fodder scam case in a special CBI court while claiming that he was a victim of conspiracy in the Rs 950 fodder Animal Husbandry Department scandal.

Facing questions from special CBI judge A K Rai in the RC64A/96, the former Bihar chief minister claimed that he was innocent and asked how many times should he should be convicted for the same case after being been convicted in the RC20A/96 case earlier. Recording the statement under CrPC 313 (power to examine the accused) in the case pertaining to illegal withdrawal of Rs 96 lakh from the Deogarh Treasury in the 1990s, Prasad alleged that the CBI?s chargesheet and documentary evidence contradicting each other and that the investigating agency had made him who was the complainant, guilty. To a question, he denied having carried out any transfer or extension of any official during his chief ministerial tenure in the 1990s when the scam was unearthed. The RJD chief?s counsel, Prabhat Kumar said that the court had asked the same questions which his client recorded during the RC20A/96 case. On September 30 last year, Prasad was convicted and on October 3 sentenced to five years imprisonment in the RC 20A/96 fodder case pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore from the Chaibasa Treasury.