Patna: Former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra was on Monday sent to jail after he surrendered in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Ranchi in connection with a multi-billion dollar fodder scam.
Mishra, 80, who served as the chief of minister of Bihar for three terms, and was also a federal minister in the previous Congress government, surrendered in the court of Justice S.S. Prasad in Ranchi after which he was forwarded to jail.
His surrender comes about a fortnight after he was sentenced to five years in jail in a fodder scam case relating to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs336.75 million (Dh19 million) from Chaibasa treasury.
This is a double whammy for the ageing leader who only last month lost his ailing wife Veena Mishra. Her death came barely two days before he was convicted in the fodder scam.
However, since he was busy in performing the last rites of his wife, he could not depose before the CBI court on January 24 when he was convicted and then sentenced to five-year jail in the fodder scam case, along with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad.
Owing to his absence, the court later issued an arrest warrant against him but he prayed to the court to grant him time to perform the last rites of his wife. Eventually he surrendered before the court on Monday.
Mishra, however, had been acquitted in another fodder scam case relating to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs8.45 million from Deoghar treasury by the CBI court on December 23.
RJD president Lalu Prasad, however, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail in the same case. He has been convicted in two fodder scam cases since December 2017 and is currently lodged in Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi, Jharkhand for the past 45 days.
