Fodder scam case verdict against Lalu Yadav today: Here's all you should know

If convicted, RJD chief and veteran Bihar politician Lalu Prasad Yadav will be immediately taken into custody.

Ranchi: A special CBI court in Ranchi set to deliver on Saturday the verdict in a case related to Rs 1,000-crore fodder scam in which RJD chief and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. Accompanied by his younger son and Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly, Tejaswi Yadav, the RJD chief arrived in Ranchi on Friday evening. 

Here's all that you need to know about the case:-

-Lalu Yadav will present himself in the court of CBI special judge Shivpal Singh during pronouncement of the verdict in the case RC 64(A)/96, which pertains to the alleged fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 90 lakh from Deoghar district treasury between 1994 and 1996. 

-Yadav, 69, was Bihar chief minister during those years.

-''I have full faith in the judiciary,'' he said after reaching here.

-The case relates to embezzling of more than Rs. 89 lakh from the Deoghar Treasury between 1991 and 1994. 

-The veteran Bihar politician has already been convicted in another fodder scam case that cost him his Lok Sabha seat and disqualified him from contesting elections.

-If convicted, Lalu will be immediately taken into custody. 

-In October 2013, when he was first convicted in a related fodder scam case, he had to spend two months in jail before he got bail from the Supreme Court.

-In this case, Lalu Yadav faces accusations that as the Chief Minister and Finance Minister back in the nineties, he kept the file for an inquiry against the mastermind of the scam pending for 16 months and gave three other officials extensions despite objections from bureaucrats. 

-Lalu was aware of the scam but allowed the loot to continue by his inaction, the CBI has alleged.

-Besides Lalu Yadav, former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra and 19 others are also accused in the case. 

-Of the 34 people initially accused in the case, 11 died during the course of the trial, while one turned approver and admitted to the crime.

-The hearing in the case concluded on December 13 and all accused were asked to remain present in court for the judgement.

-In 2014, the Jharkhand High Court had given relief to the former Bihar Chief Minister and others by dropping charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and prevention of corruption. 

-The court had quashed the cases on the grounds that a person convicted in one case could not be tried in similar cases based on same witnesses and evidence.

-In May this year, the Supreme Court ruled that Lalu Yadav will have to stand trial in all the fodder scam cases, setting aside the high court order that dropped cases charges against the former Bihar chief minister.

-The former chief minister of Bihar had been charged in several cases related to the scam, in which Rs. 900 crore were embezzled from the state exchequer for fictitious medicines and fodder for cattle over a period of 20 years. 

-The CBI began probing the case in 1996.

-Over 50 cases were registered for embezzlement of funds on the pretext of buying fodder for cattle, among others.