Still recovering from the news of Lalu Prasad Yadav's conviction in fodder scam case, the Rashtriya Janta Dal's (RJD) first family will not celebrate Makar Sankranti in Patna this year.
Yadav, who has been sentenced for 3.5 years, is currently serving his term in Ranchi's Birsa Munda Central jail. The family is also mourning the recent death of Lalu's elder sister Gangotri Devi, reportedIndia Today.
The Yadav family, very famously holds traditional 'Dahi-Chura' feast every year on the day of Makar Sankranti at their 10 Circular Road residence in Patna. People from across the state would visit Lalu' s residence to enjoy delicacies.
This year, however, the mood will not be the same.
The former state chief minister who is facing multiple criminal cases pertaining to fodder scam expressed his concern in the court as well. Yadav earlier this week, when visited the CBI court for hearing, requested Justice Shivpal Singh to deliver his verdict as soon as possible.
"Sir, Makar Sankranti is round the corner. How would I eat Chura Dahi in jail?," he told the judge in a lighter vein. Singh, who sentenced him to jail in the Deoghar case, told Yadav that he will direct the jail authority to make suitable arrangements in this regard, reported The Times of India.
The special CBI court of Shiv Pal Singh had on January 6 handed down three-and-a-half years prison term to Lalu in the case pertaining to illegal withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from Deoghar treasury between 1991 and 1994, in the second of the five fodder scam cases against him.
On September 30, 2013, Lalu was held guilty in another case of illegal withdrawal of Rs 37.70 crore from the Chaibasa treasury and sentenced for five years. The RJD boss was on bail in this case when he was convicted and sentenced in the one related to fraudulent withdrawal of government funds in the Deoghar case.
Apart from these two cases, he in an accused in three other cases of the fodder scam estimated to have caused a loss of Rs 900 crore to the exchequer when he was the chief minister of undivided Bihar.