Lalu will keep company with ex-CM, MP, industrialist in jail

Former Bihar chief minister found guilty in fodder scam. He will be in Ranchi's Birsa Munda Central Jail till conviction.

Former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad was driven straight to Birsa Munda Central Jail after he was convicted by the special court in the fodder scam on Monday.

He will remain there till the court announces the quantum of punishment on October 3. The Birsa Munda jail is among the few prisons in the country that have video-conferencing system linked with the Ranchi court. Lalu will not have to appear in person before the court on October 3. The sentence will be communicated to him through video-conference.

Lalu would be sharing the upper division cell in the jail with former chief minister Jagannath Mishra and parliamentarian Jagdish Sharma, also convicted in the scam. This VIP cell area has been a home to former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda.

A total of 34 of the 45 accused in the fodder scam convicts were sent to jail, including key fodder supplier MD Sayeed and assistant director of animal husbandry department KM Prasad.

At the jail gates, his brother-in-law, Sadhu Yadav said, "We will appeal in a higher court after the jail term is announced on October 3."

Acting jail superintendent Dharmendra Pandey, said, "The 34 convicted in the fodder scam will be lodged in cells accordingly."

Birsa jail is the same place where industrialist RK Agarwal, accused in Rajya Sabha poll horse-trading and legislator Sawna Lakra, charged with an honour killing (currently at Rajendra Institute Medical Sciences) and medicine scam accused former health secretary Pradeep Kumar, are also lodged.

Later Lalu was joined by his elder son Tejaswi Yadav and leader of opposition in Bihar, Abdul Bari Siddique. Earlier, the district administration had restricted public movement near the jail area since 10 am.