The Supreme Court on Monday will pronounce its verdict on the Central Bureau of Investigation’s appeal against a Jharkhand High Court order to drop charges against former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad in the fodder scam, ANI reported. The scam, exposed in 1996, involved the embezzlement of around Rs 1,000 crore from the state exchequer for the purchase of fictitious medicines and fodder for cattle between 1990 and 1997, when Prasad was the chief minister of Bihar. Several cases had been registered in connection with the scam.
The Jharkhand High Court had in 2014 ordered the dropping of charges of criminal conspiracy against the Rashtriya Janata Dal leader on the grounds that the same person, once convicted, cannot be tried for the same case twice. However, it had allowed proceedings against him for falsifying evidence and attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life, The Indian Express reported.
The CBI had argued that Prasad had been involved in swindling different amounts of money from different treasuries. The leader had been convicted in one of the cases in October 2013 but had been granted bail in December of the same year.
The Supreme Court had reserved its judgement in the case on April 20 and asked all parties concerned to make their submissions within a week. The verdict is expected to be delivered at around 10.30 am.
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