File photo of Lalu Prasad.
Former union minister Lalu Prasad received a sentence for five years in jail via video-conference from the jail where he was taken on Monday after he was found guilty of embezzling crores in the 1990s with bogus bills for cattle feed when he was chief minister of Bihar.
Lalu Prasad, 66, asked the judge, "When I have not done any crime, how have I been punished?"
Judge Pravas Kumar Singh retorted: "You can appeal in a higher court." (
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Mr Prasad's party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD has confirmed it will challenge his verdict and sentence. (
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The RJD is a close ally of the Congress; it does not participate in the ruling coalition at the centre, but lends external supports with four Lok Sabha MPs. (
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Lalu Prasad has become one of the country's first politicians to face political disqualification under a new Supreme Court order banning convicts from serving as law-makers.
The government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attempted to pass an executive order reversing the rule, but withdrew it in the face of scathing public censure from Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.