Lalu Prasad surrenders in Ranchi CBI court
Ranchi, Aug 30 : Former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad on Thursday surrendered in a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court here to serve his sentence in a fodder scam case.
Lalu Prasad surrendered before Justice S.S. Prasad, who sent him to the Birsa Munda Central Jail.
From jail he could later be shifted to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) for treatment, the judge said. The Jharkhand High Court on August 24 had directed him to surrender by August 30. He was out on provisional bail since May 11.
The RJD chief arrived here in Jharkhand late on Wednesday to surrender in the court.
State leaders including former Union Minister and Congress leader Subodh Kant Sahay and former Jharkhand Chief Ministers -- Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Hemant Soren and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajantarik chief Babulal Marandi -- met him at a guest house where he was staying.
Before surrendering, Lalu Prasad told reporters: "I have faith in the judiciary." He was in Ranchi's Birsa Munda Central Jail after being convicted in December 2017 in a fodder scam case.
He was convicted in two more cases in January and March and awarded 14 years imprisonment. In 2013, Lalu Prasad was convicted in the first fodder scam case and sentenced to jail for five years.
The multi-million fodder scam had surfaced in the 1990s when he was the Bihar Chief Minister. At the directive of the Patna High Court, the probe was handed over to the CBI.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
