“SIR, Makar Sankranti is round the corner. How would I eat Chura Dahi in jail,” Lalu Prasad Yadav told the judge in a lighter vein. Special CBI judge Shivpal Singh, who sentenced him to jail in the Deoghar case, told Yadav that he will direct the jail authority to make suitable arrangements in this regard, those present in the courtroom said.
Surrounded by armed policemen, Yadav walked into the courtroom stone faced. Once inside, he requested Justice Shivpal Singh to deliver his verdict as soon as possible.
Troubles have not ended for Lalu Prasad Yadav yet as another fodder scam case inches closer to judgement day. A special CBI court in Ranchi, which is hearing one of the four cases of the two decades old fodder scam, is likely to pronounce its judgement on January 24.
In the case, which pertains to fraudulent withdrawals worth Rs 37 crore by the Bihar animal husbandry department from Chaibasa district treasury (now in Jharkhand) in the erstwhile united Bihar, Yadav is an accused along with 29 others. He has been charged with cheating, criminal conspiracy, corruption and abuse of office as public servant in the case.
Yadav attended the court hearing of special CBI judge SS Prasad through video-conferencing from Ranchi’s Birsa Munda jail, where he is serving a 3.5-year imprisonment term since January 6 in another fodder scam case.