Ranchi, Jan. 31: A CBI court today convicted and sentenced as many as 64 people in one of the 53 cases (RC35A/96) related to fodder scam during the rule of Lalu Prasad in undivided Bihar.

Of the convicted, 23 are government officials and 41 suppliers. CBI special judge N.N. Singh handed them prison terms ranging from two to six years besides slapping fines from Rs 25,000 to Rs 9 lakh. “Those who fail to pay the fine will have to spend more days behind bars ranging from two months to six months,” said special public prosecutor S.K. Lal.

The convicted government officials included three regional directors of animal husbandry department — K.N. Jha, Junul Bhengraj and Om Prakash Diwakar —, assistant director K.M. Prasad and regional joint director Radha Raman Sahay. Jha and Bhengraj were sent to jail for six years along with a fine of Rs 9 lakh while Diwakar, Prasad and Sahay were awarded jail term of five years and a fine of Rs 8 lakh.

The suppliers included Vijay Kumar Mallik, Abhay Kumar Sinha, Sanjay Sinha, Nand Kishore Prasad, Mohammed Tauheed and Mohammed Sayeed. Each was awarded imprisonment of five years and fine of Rs 5 lakh.

Then assistant security clerk of Doranda treasury, Dinanath Sahay, escaped with the minimum fine of Rs 25,000. However, he has been awarded two years’ imprisonment.

This is the 40th case that was dispensed.