Bihar former CM Jagannath Mishra passes away in Delhi

Patna, Aug 19: Bihar former Chief minister Jagannath Mishra passed away in Delhi after prolonged illness. Mishra, a former three-time Chief Minister of the state, was 82 years old. The Bihar government has declared three-day mourning in the state and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expressed his condolence at his demise.

Mishra, a teacher and then a politician, went on to become the chief minister of Bihar thrice. He also served as a minister in the Union Cabinet and was formerly a member of the Indian National Congress, before leaving Congress to join the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and later the Janata Dal-United (JD-U).

Mishra began his career as a lecturer and later became professor of economics at Bihar University, before stepping into politics. He was also strongly involved in Saint Vinoda Bhave's Bhoodan Movement between 1953 and 1960. Within the scope of that movement, he donated most of his inherited land to the landless.

Mishra has written about 40 research papers and guided 20 PhD Dissertations on Economics. However, he did suffer significant taint to his repute when he was convicted, along with 44 others, in a fodder scam case by a CBI court in 2013.

Mishra was married to Veena who died on 22 January 2018 at Delhi's Medanta hospital. She was 72 and was undergoing treatment for respiratory complications. His son, Nitish Mishra, is also a politician and has served as cabinet minister in the Government of Bihar. His nephew, Vijay Kumar Mishra, is a Member of the Legislative Assembly. Another nephew, Rajiv Mishra, is CEO of Lok Sabha TV.

On January 24, Special CBI judge S S Prasad awarded Mishra five years rigorous imprisonment in connection with a fodder scam case involving fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.62 crore from the Chaibasa Treasury in early 1990s.

However, in July 2018, the Jharkhand High Court granted regular bail to Mishra, who was already on provision bail in three other cases under the Rs 900 crore scam.