Controversial Indian politician gets 5 years in jail in decades-old corruption case

NEW DELHI, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- A special court on Wednesday sentenced controversial Indian politician Lalu Prasad Yadav, former chief minister of eastern Bihar state, to five years in jail, hours after holding him guilty in a decades-old corruption case.

This is the third case in the multi-million dollars fodder scam that took place when Yadav was Bihar's chief minister in the 1990s. He has already been convicted in two other fodder scam cases in 2013 and 2017 and got five and three-and-a-half years of jail term, respectively.

Apart from Yadav, another former chief minister of Bihar Jagannath Mishra has been handed down a five-year jail term by the special court in the neighboring state of Jharkhand's capital Ranchi in the latest case involving 56 accused, out of which six were acquitted.

The court also slapped a fine of 500,000 Indian rupees (9,000 U.S. dollars) on Yadav, who is currently in a jail in Jharkhand serving prison term in other graft cases, and Mishra, respectively.

The fodder scam first came to light in 1996. The scam involved the embezzlement of state funds intended for cattle fodder while Yadav was Bihar's chief minister. Yadav, who later became the Indian railways minister, has always denied the charges.

After the latest conviction, his family members blamed India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for "using" the Central Bureau of Investigation to frame Yadav.

"People know how the BJP and RSS and more importantly (current Bihar Chief Minister) Nitish Kumar conspired against Yadav. We will approach higher courts against all these verdicts," his son Tejashwi Yadav told the media.

Yadav is one of India's most controversial politicians. He heads a regional party in Bihar. After corruptions allegations surfaced against him, he had resigned as chief minister of Bihar and installed his wife, Rabri Devi, in his place.

Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal party lost power in state elections in 2005. Currently, Bihar is ruled by a coalition government, comprising Kumar's Janata Dal (United) party and its junior alliance partner BJP. Enditem