RANCHI: RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has been sentenced to five years in jail in the fifth case in connection with the fodder scam. The special CBI court in Ranchi had pronounced the sentence. He also has to pay a fine of Rs 60 lakh.

Lalu Yadav, who got arrested in the fodder scam case in 2013, for the first time, had received bail that year itself. He was again arrested in other fodder cases in 2017. However, he was granted bail in April 2021. The court had found Lalu Yadav and 75 others guilty in the fifth fodder case, on Monday. 24 accused including six women were acquitted by judge S K Shaji, due to insufficient evidence. Lalu's lawyer had argued that the sentence should be commuted considering his age, but the court went ahead with the sentence.

The CBI had submitted 170 charge sheets alleging the embezzlement of Rs 950 crore from the state’s exchequer during Lalu’s tenure as chief minister, before the Bihar partition. Apart from Lalu, several other major officials such as former MP Jagdish Sharma, then Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Dhruv Bhagat were among the accused.

55 of the accused including former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra had died during the trial period. Six are still absconding. Lalu was earlier sentenced to 14 years in jail and Rs 60 lakh fine, in four other cases related to Dumka, Deoghar and Chaibasa treasuries in Jharkhand. He was granted bail in the case in April 2021. Lalu has been living in the Birsa Munda Central jail since2017.

In January 1996, a raid on the Animal Husbandry Department had revealed the indications of a multi-crore scam. In 1997, the CBI named Lalu Prasad and former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra accused in the case. In 2013, the court convicted 47 people including them. Lalu received bail in December, that year. However, in 2017, he was again sentenced to jail in another case.