This Article is From Oct 03, 2013

Lalu Prasad's sentence in fodder scam case to be pronounced today via videoconference

Lalu Prasad being taken to jail on Monday.

Ranchi: The quantum of sentence for Lalu Prasad, prisoner number 3312 at Ranchi's Birsa Munda Central jail, will be announced today through video-conferencing in a special CBI court.

The 66-year-old political heavyweight from Bihar, convicted with 44 others in the fodder scam, faces between four and seven years in prison. The verdict also disqualifies him from his Lok Sabha membership and barring him from contesting elections for six years, according to a recent Supreme Court order.

The 17-year-old case, being called a watershed conviction, relates to the misuse of Rs 37 crores of public money, part of a larger scam that saw Rs 950 crores used to pay fictitious bills for medicines and fodder for cattle in Bihar.

Besides Lalu Prasad, the court on Monday also convicted another former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra and Janata Dal (United) MP Jagdish Sharma.

Lalu Prasad's party, the RJD, now faces the challenge of appointing a successor who can not only keep the party afloat and united, but also convey the message to the party's voters that Lalu Prasad is still very much in charge, even from jail.

Since he walked inside the jail, the RJD chief has held a series of meetings with top leaders to defuse to crisis, even ordering a party meet to calm the cadres. His wife Rabri Devi has said she and her son will run the party like Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul run the Congress.

Lalu Prasad had to resign as Bihar chief minister in 1997 after being charged in the scam; he installed his wife, Rabri Devi, in office. In the 2005 election, he lost the state to arch rival Nitish Kumar. The RJD chief also served as one of India's most successful railway ministers during the first term of the UPA from 2004 to 2009.
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