Patna: Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Yadav was today granted bail by the Jharkhand High Court in a case related to the fodder scam of Bihar.
The former Bihar chief minister is known as the ‘Dumka Treasury Case’, where he was found guilty of withdrawing Rs 3.13 crore from the treasury in the city of Jharkhand, east of Bihar, in which he is serving his sentence. Lalu Prasad will come out of jail after about 40 months. Lalu is currently unwell and is undergoing treatment at AIIMS in Delhi.
Lalu Yadav, currently in Delhi’s AIIMS for treatment, was earlier granted bail in three of the four cases related to the whereabouts of government money for animal feed. After getting bail in the Dumka case, he can now be released from the hospital and return home.
Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh said that Lalu Prasad can neither leave the country without permission nor change his address and mobile number during the bail period.
The ‘Dumka Treasury Case’ involves the money taken from the Dumka treasury by officials of the Animal Husbandry Department of Bihar between 1991 and 1996 when Lalu Yadav was the Chief Minister.
Last October, Lalu Yadav was granted bail in the Chaibasa treasury case related to the fodder scam.
Lalu Prasad was opposed to bail by the CBI. The CBI said that Lalu Prasad has been sentenced to seven years in the IPC and seven years under the PC Act by the CBI court in the Dumka treasury. The CBI court has ordered the two sentences to run separately. In such a situation, Lalu Prasad got a total of 14 years in the illegal clearance from the Dumka treasury. Only after spending seven years in jail will his half sentence be completed. In this way half of his sentence is not fulfilled. Therefore, he is not entitled to bail.
This argument of CBI was opposed by Kapil Sibal. He told the court that several other accused in this case have been granted bail only after taking a seven-year sentence. In those cases the CBI did not make this argument, then in the case of Lalu Prasad, this new argument cannot be given. The court also did not accept the CBI’s plea and granted bail to Lalu Prasad with certain conditions.