The special CBI court has awarded former RJD MP R K Rana and 11 others five-year rigorous imprisonment in the multi-crore fodder scam on  Saturday.

 

Rana, a close aide of RJD supremo and former railway minister Lalu Prasad, has been sentenced to five-year rigorous imprisonment and slapped a Rs 4 lakh fine by the CBI special judge Vishweshwar Jha Praveer who held total of 14 accused guilty in the fodder scam case on Friday.

 

Of the remaining 11 accused, the court pronounced the minimum sentence of three-and-a-half-year RI and a fine of Rs 1.9 lakh to Sashi Kumar Sinha.

 

The maximum sentence of five-year RI and a fine of Rs 4.9 lakh each was awarded to Brij Bhushan Prasad and Tripurari Mohan Prasad.

 

Among other accused sentenced include Sashi Kumar Sinha, Umesh Prasad Singh, Krishna Deo Prasad Sinha, Satish Chander Jha, Bhanukar Dubey, Sunil Kumar Sinha, Sushil Kumar Sinha, Dayanand Kashyap and Sanjay Shankar.

 

Two other accused, Sawarati Chandra and Phool Singh, who were granted bail on Friday have been awarded two and two-and-a-half-year sentence respectively besides being slapped with fines of Rs 20,000 and Rs 30,000.

 

All the accused were sentenced in case no. RC 22A/96 of fodder scam related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 28.26 lakh from Godda treasury. The case was lodged on February 28, 1996

 

The total number of accused in the case was 20. While four of them died during the trial, two others confessed to their involvement in the scam earlier. This was 32nd case of fodder scam case which was disposed.

 

A total of 53 fodder scam cases are being tried at Ranchi special CBI court. These are related to the fraudulent withdrawals from Ranchi, Gumla, Simdega, Hazaribag, Dumka, Godda, Chaibasa and Palamu district treasuries.

 

1 AUG 2009 TOI