Former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav recently sentenced in fodder scam case RC 47 A/96 is likely to face another money-laundering probe.

In this case, the special CBI court of Sudhanshu Kumar Shashi has asked the Enforcement Directorate to start a money-laundering probe against all convicts and dead accused of this case.

“Properties created from the proceeds of the crime by the convicts and dead accused persons of this case could not be identified.  It may be a subject matter of investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. The Enforcement Directorate if wishes so, and if law permits, may proceed for identification and confiscation of such properties/assets created by convicts or dead accused persons by the ill-gotten money. Thus, the prosecution (CBI) is directed to provide a copy of this judgment, FIR and charge-sheet, etc. of this case to the Enforcement Directorate for taking necessary action on their part,” the judgment reads.

This case is related to the illegal withdrawal of Rs 139.35 Crores from Doranda treasury of Ranchi. On February 15 the court convicted Lalu Prasad and 74 others accused. On Monday, the court awarded five years of rigorous imprisonment and Rs 60 lakh to Lalu Prasad Yadav.

This is the third fodder scam case in which the court ordered a money-laundering probe. Out of the three cases, Lalu Prasad Yadav was convicted in two cases.

A week back, the ED lodged FIR in two cases of fodder scam namely RC 38 A/ 96 and RC 45/96.

In RC 38 A/96 case, Lalu Prasad was and 18 others were held guilty by the court for illegally withdrawing Rs 3.76 Crore from Deoghar district treasury. The court awarded him 14 years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 60 lakh. During the trial, 13 charge-sheeted accused persons died namely.

In RC 45A/ 96, Rs 34.91 Crore was illegally withdrawn from Dumka treasury. The court convicted 37 accused. As many as 17 accused persons had died during the trial.

In both cases, the judgments were delivered in the month of March and April of 2018 respectively. While passing the judgment, the judge of the special CBI court Shivpal Singh had directed the ED to attach properties of convicts as well as all such accused who died during the trial. The court had said that the accused may have died but they can’t be freed from civil liabilities hence their properties must be confiscated.

In the 20A/96 case, the CBI had seized the assets of many accused persons. In this case, pertaining to the illegal withdrawal of Rs. 37.70 Crore from Chaibasa treasury, Lalu Prasad was convicted. The CBI seized about Rs 10 Crore cash from various accused and approvers like Dipesh Chandak (Rs 2.33 Crore), Shyam Bihari Sinha (Rs 2.50 Crore), and others. The amount was deposited at the State Bank of India. The CBI also seized the gold bond worth 200 kg.