A special CBI court in Ranchi on Thursday sentenced 58 persons, including two nephews of Railways Minister Lalu Prasad, to jail terms ranging from two and a half years to six years for fraudulently withdrawing Rs 48 crore from the Chaibasa treasury in the 1990s.Judge Uma Shankar Prasad Sinha sentenced suppliers Nagendra Yadav and Virendra Yadav, the nephews of the RJD supremo, and two other suppliers -- Rakesh Mehra and Sanjay Kumar -- to three years rigorous imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 1.45 lakh each in the case.
As many as 15 treasury and animal husbandry department officials, including two former regional directors -- Junul Bhengraj and Ram Raj Ram -- were handed out six years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 3.8 lakh each. In default of paying the fine, the convicted will have to undergo one more year of rigorous imprisonment.
Altogether, 38 other suppliers, including five women, were sentenced to prison terms ranging between two and a half years and five years and a fine of up to Rs 2.75 lakh each.
The sentence of another official Dr G P Tripathy was not pronounced.
The CBI counsel, G N Singh, said the jail terms of 33 of the convicts pertaining to this case (rc 66a/96), who also had been convicted in the rc 19a/96 six months ago, would be concurrent from today.
This is the 19th of the 53 cases to have ended in convictions with a total of about 250 persons being convicted.
The 950-crore fodder scam was unearthed in the mid 1990s during undivided Bihar and 53 cases were transferred to Jharkhand after bifurcation.
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