Ranchi:A special CBI court on Thursday has sentenced RJD chief Lalu Prasad five years imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 25 lakh in fodder scam. 

Including Lalu, Jagannath Mishra and 43 others were convicted on charges of fradulently withdrawing Rs 37.70 crore from the Chaibasa district treasury. With Thursday’s sentencing, Lalu Prasad becomes the second politician to lose membership of Parliament in line with a Supreme Court ruling.

A spokesperson for his party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD, said “It has never been as united as it is now” and announced it will appeal against the verdict. (Lalu Prasad: the rise and fall of a maverick politician)

Lalu and other convicts in the case heard the verdict via video conference.

Another former chief minister of Bihar, Jagannath Mishra of the Congress, was sentenced to four years in prison.  Jagdish Sharma of the ruling Janata Dal United, also got a four-year sentence which means he is no longer a member of parliament.

The Supreme Court in July ruled that convicted law-makers stand disqualified immediately. The government yesterday withdrew an ordinance that sought to nullify that. The executive order was derided as “nonsense” by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, and the opposition had said the ordinance was introduced in a rush to protect Mr Prasad, who has been a close ally of the minority government. (Cabinet withdraws ordinance on convicted lawmakers) 

Mr Prasad has to decide who will head his party in his absence, and who the RJD should choose as its candidate for his constituency of Saran. National elections are due by May. 

His wife Rabri Devi, who has been chief minister of Bihar thrice, has said she and her son will run the party “like Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi run the Congress.”