Jharkhand Transport Secretary Sajal Chakraborty today became the first serving IAS officer to be convicted in connection with the fodder scam by a special CBI court.

Chakraborty (48) was among 64 accused found guilty by the court of B K Sahay in Ranchi for signing forged bills in a fodder case relating to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 39 crore from the Chaibasa treasury in the early 1990s. He was the Deputy Commissioner of Chaibasa when the withdrawals were made.

Asked if his government would defend its Transport Secretary, Chief Minister Madhu Koda said: “The court has not delivered the verdict so far. Let us wait for the judgment, we will study it and decide our next course of action.”

The CBI court sentenced ten women — all fodder suppliers — to three-year jail terms while the quantum of sentence against Chakraborty and 53 others will be pronounced tomorrow.

All the ten women convicts, who secured periodic bail from the court, were slapped a fine ranging between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 25 lakh.

This is the 28th of 63 fodder cases. In all, 274 people have been convicted.

The IAS officer was present in the court when the conviction orders were passed. He was heard telling an acquaintance outside the court that he had “never” expected the conviction as he had “not engaged in seeking any illegal gratification”.

Chakraborty’s advocate Arvind Kumar said: “We are not at all satisfied with the conviction. We will decide the next course of action after the sentence is pronounced on Tuesday”. But the CBI counsel for the case, Jainarayan Singh, expressed satisfaction over the conviction, saying “now the law has started catching up with IAS officers”.

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