Lalu Prasad Yadav, former Bihar chief minister and leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), was sentenced to five years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 60 lakh by a special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Ranchi on Monday in connection with a 139-crore Doranda treasury case related to the fodder scam.

An SK Shashi special court found Yadav and 74 others guilty in the fifth fodder scam case, which included the illicit removal of 139.35 crores from Doranda treasury in Ranchi, the state capital. Yadav and 74 others were sentenced to prison terms on Tuesday.

Prior to this, the ailing 73-year-old lawmaker was jailed in four other instances involving the treasuries of Dumka, Deoghar, and Chaibasa in connection with the fodder fraud. He has filed a restraining order against all of his convictions in the Jharkhand High Court and has been granted bail in stages. A sixth and last case, involving illicit withdrawals from the Banka treasury in Bihar, is still pending in the courtroom today.

Lawyer Prabhat Kumar, representing Lalu, said they will appeal the decision to the High Court and expressed confidence that the RJD leader would be granted bail in the near future.

A video conference link was established between the lawmaker and the sentencing court from the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), where he had been sent within hours after being sentenced to Hotwar prison following his conviction in this case on Tuesday.

"Once we receive a copy of the order, we will file a petition with the Supreme Court." We will also file an application for bail, which we are certain will be granted quickly because he has already spent more than half of his sentence in jail, which is a requirement for bail under the Criminal Procedure Code. In the Dumka treasury case, he was imprisoned from December 2017 until April 2021, when he was released on bail, according to Kumar.

In addition to Lalu, the court sentenced 39 other offenders in the case to prison terms ranging from three to five years and monetary fines ranging from 2 lakh to 2 crores, depending on their prior criminal records.

"Today, the court condemned 40 offenders, including 38 who were sentenced to prison on Tuesday and two others who did not present in court on the day of the decision," the statement said. Lalu Prasad has been found guilty of violating Section 120 (B) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 13 (2) of the Corruption Act of India. Lalu Prasad was sentenced to five years in prison and a 60 lakh fine, while four other offenders were sentenced to five years in prison. According to CBI lawyer BMP Singh, a maximum fine of Rs. 2 crores was imposed on supplier Tribhuwan Prasad, and another supplier Mohammed Saeed received a punishment of Rs. 1.5 crore.

The fodder scandal involves unlawful withdrawals from different government treasuries totalling Rs. 950 crore for bogus expenditure on fodder and other necessities for livestock during Lalu's tenure as Bihar's chief minister during his tenure as chief minister.

The CBI had lodged 53 distinct cases in 1996 when the situation was initially discovered by Amit Khare, then a deputy commissioner in the Chaibasa police department. In 1997, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) designated Prasad as a suspect in the case.

On top of that, the Doranda Treasury case (RC 47 (A)/96) proved to be the most complicated, as it featured both the greatest number of defendants and the greatest amount of defalcation money out of the 53 instances investigated.

In 2005, the central investigation agency filed accusations against 170 persons in connection with the case. While 55 of them died over the course of the trial, eight others changed their minds and approved the verdict. Six of them have eluded capture, while two others have pled guilty.