Delhi,
A CBI court on Monday convicted RJD leader Lalu Prasad and 44 others in the fodder scam case that will not only decide the fate of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, the main accused, but also shape the future of Bihar politics. Lalu Prasad faces upto 3-7 years in jail. The quantum of sentence will be announced after 2pm. The fodder scam is a series of fraudulent transactions in the department, totaling about Rs. 950 crore. Prasad and 44 others were charged with fraudulent withdrawal to the tune of Rs. 37.7 crore on fake fodder bills from Chaibasa treasury in the 1990s in a case lodged by CBI. Chaibasa was part of undivided Bihar then. Former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra and JD(U) MP Jagdish Sharma were also charged in the case. Lalu, 66, was present in court and seated when the verdict against him was delivered in Ranchi. He has been convicted along with 44 others, including seven more politicians and four bureaucrats. The sentence will be announced on Thursday through video-conferencing. Lalu has been found guilty of misusing Rs. 37 crore when he was chief minister 17 years ago. The case is related to a larger scam which saw huge amounts of government money – nearly 950 crores – being used to pay fictitious bills for medicines and fodder for cattle. The Supreme Court in July ruled that any MP convicted in a criminal case would have to quit office till his or her appeal is decided by a higher court. The judgement had provoked furious debate among political parties. Last week, the Congress tried to circumvent the Supreme Court’s order by introducing an ordinance that was described by critics as an attempt to shield convicted MPs. However, on Friday, the party’s vice-president, Rahul Gandhi, in a surprise attack, dismissed the ordinance as “complete nonsense” and said it should be “torn up and thrown away.” That censure was seen as a public and damaging undermining of the Prime Minister by Mr Gandhi, whose mother, Sonia, heads the party. Mr Gandhi’s stand means the government has virtually abandoned the ordinance, which allows convicted MPs to remain in office while their appeal is decided, but without a salary and voting rights. The BJP had alleged last week that the Congress wanted to use its special constitutional powers to hurriedly introduce the ordinance to protect Lalu, who proved a loyal ally of the Congress. His party has four Lok Sabha MPs. Lalu was the Bihar chief minister and considered virtually unshakable when he had to resign in 1997 after being charged in the scam; he promptly placed his wife Rabri Devi as CM in his stead. But in the 2005 election, he lost Bihar to Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United) who has been in power ever since. Lalu’s party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD, has said the judge handling the case is biases against Lalu because he is related to a senior minister in the Bihar government headed by Nitish Kumar. Lalu’s lawyers petitioned unsuccessfully to have the judge replaced. Earlier, the Supreme Court had rejected Lalu’s plea to transfer the case since CBI judge Pravas Kumar Singh is a relative of a Bihar minister. But, the apex court had rejected.