* RJD to challenge verdict; former CM Jagannath Mishra acquitted

A court yesterday convicted Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in the fourth fodder scam case but acquitted another former chief minister Jagannath Mishra.
Judge Shivpal Singh delivered the judgment in the case relating to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs31.3mn from December 1995 to January 1996 from the Dumka treasury. The verdict was deferred four times.
The judge delivered the verdict alphabetically but Yadav, who was the chief minister of undivided Bihar when the multi-million rupee fodder scam surfaced in 1990s, reached the court after it was delivered. Mishra was, however, present in the court.
Yadav was admitted to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS) on Saturday after he complained of constipation. His lawyer was present when the verdict came.
After the judgment, Yadav returned to the hospital.
This is second case in which Mishra has been acquitted. Both Yadav and Mishra are facing five cases each in the fodder scam in Ranchi.
There were 31 accused in this case, of which 19 were convicted and 12 acquitted.
According to Yadav’s lawyer Prabhat Kumar, the Central Bureau of Investigation court will sentence the accused later this week.
When the case was first filed against Yadav in 1996, there were 49 accused, of which 14 died during trial.
Besides Mishra, those acquitted include politicians like Dhruva Bhagat, R K Rana and Jagdish Sharma.
Yadav’s wife Rabri Devi, who too is a former Bihar chief chief minister, and her elder son Tej Pratap Yadav expressed disappointment over the conviction, saying they had thought he would be acquitted.
“I was expecting acquittal. It disappointed us. But we respect the verdict and have faith in judiciary,” Rabri Devi told reporters in Patna.
Tej Pratap said he expected “relief” for his father. Nonetheless, “we respect the court verdict”.
RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said: “There were four conspirators in the case and three including Mishra have been acquitted. This indicates that (Prime Minster) Narendra Modi is playing some game. We will appeal.”
Party spokesman Shakti Yadav said the party would challenge the verdict in the high court.
Soon after the verdict, hundreds of RJD leaders and workers gathered outside 10, Circular Road, the official residence of Rabri Devi. Most said the RJD chief had been convicted due to political vendetta.
“How come Jagannath Mishra has been acquitted in a scam in which Lalu Prasad is convicted? Mishra was acquitted as he supported the BJP, which has ‘managed’ the CBI, and Lalu Prasad was convicted for fighting against them,” RJD worker Mukesh Singh said.
Yadav was convicted in the first fodder scam case in 2013 and sentenced to five years in jail.
He was convicted in the second case on December 23, 2017 and given three-and-a-half years imprisonment.
The RJD chief was convicted in the third case on January 24 and awarded a five-year jail term.
The bulk of the cases was transferred to Ranchi after Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in 2000.
Yadav, who is currently in Ranchi jail, cannot contest elections or hold public offices due to his conviction in different cases relating to scam.
His youngest son Tejashwi Yadav, who is the leader of opposition in the Bihar assembly, is currently leading the RJD in the state. In the 2015 Bihar assembly polls, the RJD saw its political revival after bagging 80 seats as an ally of a grand alliance that included the Congress and the Janata Dal (United) of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. In July last year, Nitish Kumar left the alliance and joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.
The over Rs9bn fodder scam cases relate to illegal withdrawal of money from government treasury in different districts in the Animal Husbandry department in undivided Bihar in the 1990s when the RJD was in power in the state.