NEW DELHI, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Lalu Prasad Yadav, a popular and also controversial politician in India, was sentenced to three-and-a-half-years imprisonment over corruption charges on Saturday.

Last month he was convicted for a scam involving cattle fodder. A special court in eastern city of Ranchi found him guilty of embezzling around nine million Indian Rupees (around 140,000 U.S. dollars) during his chief ministerial term in eastern state of Bihar in early 1990s.

The court also imposed a fine of five lakh Indian Rupees (around 8,000 U.S. dollars) on him. The sentence was pronounced through video conferencing between the court and the jail where the politician has been kept ever since he was found guilty of corruption.

Lalu is the president of a regional political party -- the "Rashtriya Janata Dal" (RJD), which ruled the state of Bihar for several years, between 1990 and 2005. He was also India's railway minister from 2004 till 2009, and a key partner of the Congress-led alliance government.