Legal fight will continue, will move HC: RJD after Lalu's conviction in fodder scam

Ranchi: Senior RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said that the party would move the high court against a special CBI court order convicting party chief Lalu Prasad in a fodder scam case on Saturday.

Special judge Shivpal Singh acquitted former chief minister Jagannath Mishra, but convicted Prasad, also a former chief minister, and 15 others in the case pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from Deogarh treasury between 1991 and 1994.

Soon after the verdict, a post on Lalu Prasad's Twitter handle read, "Powerful people and powerful classes always managed to divide society into ruling and the ruled classes. And whenever anyone from the lower hierarchy challenged this unjust order, they would be deliberately punished."

"The legal fight will continue," Raghuvansh Prasad told reporters outside the special CBI court in Ranchi reacting to the conviction of the RJD chief, he said.

"We will move the high court. There is no other alternative," he said, adding that beside fighting it legally, the party would go to the people and fight it politically.

Senior RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui, a confidant of Lalu Prasad, said it was not right to comment on a judgement but the people were discussing how it is freedom for some people and jail for others in the same case.

"The layman is asking why it is jail for some and freedom for others? It is baffling how the BJP and JD(U) had predicted the verdict. This has created confusion among the people also," he said.

"The case was on excess withdrawal from Deogarh treasury. Laluji has been charged with connivance as he was the finance minister then - the charge is not direct. The withdrawal had been taking place since 1977. There were several chief ministers who were in charge of the finance department when Laluji was not the finance minister or the chief minister so why is he being singled out?" Siddiqui asked.

"Laluji's going to jail is not new for RJD. He had been sent to jail on earlier occasions and every time RJD bounced back with double the strength. That is why we are still number one in Bihar," he said.

The party was waiting to know the quantum of punishment to Lalu Prasad to be pronounced on January 3 and would then decide its course of action, Sidiqqui added.