CBI court imposes Rs one crore fine on Fodder Scam convicts

Ranchi, Dec 19 (UNI) A designated CBI court today sentenced three of the 43 convicts in the Rs 950 crore fodder scam to six years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs one crore each on them.

Special CBI Judge Vinay Kumar Sahay handed down the fine to Junur Bhengraj, K M Prasad and K N Jha.

However, the court took a lenient view of the six women convicts, who were sentenced to five years imprisonment and a fine of Rs three lakh. They are-- Anita Prasad, Sairu Nisha, Nirmala Prasad, Chanchala Prasad, Jyoti Kakkar and Shanti Singh alias Sobha Singh.

Rest of the 34 convicts were given six years imprisonment and a fine of Rs three lakh.

Counsel for CBI J N Singh informed the court that several crore rupees had been withdrawn from the Chaibasa treasury between 1991 to 1992 on forged documents.

There were around 48 accused in the case out of which one accused became government approver, two accused-- K K Verma and Anil Kumar Sinha-- died during the trial, another P K Jaiswal pleaded guilty during the trial but later he died, while Om Prakash Gupta died in the custody.

The scam was unearthed in 1996 in unified Bihar when present Railway Minister Lalu Prasad was the chief minister of the state.

UNI