Fodder scam: Lalu Yadav to be sentenced via videoconferencing today

A special CBI court will on Thursday pronounce the quantum of punishment on Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav held guilty in a fodder scam case.

The sentence will be pronounced through videoconferencing. Yadav is currently lodged in Ranchi's Birsa Munda Central Jail.

The 66-year-old political heavyweight from Bihar convicted with 44 others, including former Bihar Chief Minister Dr. Jagannath Mishra, 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 fodder scam also known as "Chara Ghotala" involved the siphoning of funds from the Bihar Government treasury.

The alleged theft spanned over several years, and many Bihar state government administrative and elected officials across multiple administrations were allegedly engaged in it.

The fodder scam was unearthed in Bihar in 1996 when Lalu Prasad was the Chief Minister of the state. He had resigned from the post in 1997 after a court issued an arrest warrant against him in connection with one of the cases.