Bihar fodder scam: 22 given prison terms

A special Central Bureau of Investigation court on Tuesday sentenced 22 of 29 convicts, including 10 former government officers, to prison terms varying between five and six years in connection with a fodder scam case pertaining to the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 4.5 crore from the Ranchi treasury.

The court of Judge J K N Tiwari, who has sentenced seven other convicts in the case, awarded rigorous imprisonment for six years to K N Jha, Junul Bhengraj and O P Diwakar, all former regional directors of the animal husbandry department.

The same sentence was also given to former officers K M Prasad (assistant director), Brajnandan Prasad Verma, Chandra Kishore Lal, Hemendra Kumar, Sunil Kumar Sinha, Braj Bhusan Prasad and Bhubaneswar Sahay.

While Braj Bhusan Prasad was fined Rs 1.6 lakh, the other officers were fined Rs 1.8 lakh by the court.

The court sentenced eight suppliers to RI for six years and gave RI for five years to four other suppliers.

Fines ranging from Rs 1.15 lakh to Rs 1.35 lakh were also imposed on the suppliers.

The court on Tuesday also granted a plea by 18 of the 29 convicts seeking concurrent prison terms as they had already been sentenced in another fodder case.

With the sentencing of all convicts in this case, the trial has been completed in 21 of the 53 cases related to the multi-crore scam.