Ex-railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav jailed in cattle feed scam

A former railways minister and regional ally of the government was sentenced yesterday to five years in jail for corruption, disqualifying him from parliament under new anti-graft rules.

A special court also sentenced a former chief minister of the impoverished eastern Indian state of Bihar to jail for embezzling millions of dollars in the 1990s with bogus bills for cattle feed.

Former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, a current member of India's Parliament and a former chief minister of the state, was sentenced to five years in jail and ordered to pay a US$40,000 fine for embezzling funds intended to buy food for cattle during his tenure as Bihar's top elected official in the mid-1990s.

Jagannath Mishra, another former Bihar chief minister, was jailed for four years for his involvement in the scam, said prosecution lawyer B.M.P. Singh.

Singh read out the names of 44 other bureaucrats and politicians who were also convicted of embezzling more than US$150 million in state funds that were meant to buy fodder for cattle belonging to impoverished farmers.

Yadav is one of the country's first politicians to face political disqualification under a new Supreme Court order banning convicts from public office.