Lalu Prasad Yadav – once one of India’s most important politicians and now leader of a party that has just four lawmakers in a house of 545 – was convicted of corruption on Monday. His sentence will be announced today (Tuesday).
Yadav is a former federal minister and chief minister whose Rashtriya Janata Dal party supports the incumbent ruling coalition. He was found guilty along with 44 others of conspiracy and cheating over a scam which first came to light in 1996.
The conviction means Yadav is liable to be kicked out of Indian parliament, following a recent Supreme Court ruling that national and state lawmakers be disqualified if they are found guilty of a serious crime. Yadav was chief minister of India’s poorest state of Bihar when some $6 million of public money intended to buy fodder for poor villagers was allegedly siphoned off.
“Lalu was found guilty of criminal conspiracy, corruption and cheating,” AK Singh, a lawyer for the Central Bureau of Investigation, told reporters.
Yadav did not say anything to the media as he was escorted by police.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 1st, 2013.
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cool, show no mercy on corrupt politicians.