A CBI court in Ranchi on Monday convicted former Bihar chief minster and RJD leader Lalu Prasad in the in the multi-crore fodder scam case.

Following the verdict, Lalu faces immediate disqualification as a Lok Sabha member as per a supreme court order that says an MP or MLA would stand disqualified with immediate effect if convicted by a court for crimes with punishment of two years or more. Lalu faces three to seven years in jail for the crime.

Besides the RJD chief, 43 other people accused, include former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra and JD(U) MP Jagdish Sharma. Four other politicians and as many IAS officers were also convicted – all charged with fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore on fake fodder bills from Chaibasa treasury in the 1990s in a case lodged by CBI.

The court will pronounce the quantum of sentence to the convicts on October 3.

Although the central government has promulgated an ordinance to undo the supreme court order against convicted lawmakers, it has come in criticism from, apart from the opposition parties, even Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. On Friday, the Amethi MP called it “nonsense” and an ordinance that “should be torn and thrown away”. After Congress scion’s scathing criticism, the ordinance, which could have saved Lalu, is as good as dead.  

President Pranab Mukherjee, with whom the ordinance lies at present, has neither signed it nor rejected it, though there are speculations that he would send it back after Mukherjee called central ministers for clarification on the ordinance.