Ashis Sinha I Ranchi: Jharkhand High Court on Friday granted bail to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief, Lalu Prasad Yadav in fodder scam case (Rs 950 crore) relating to Chaibasa treasury. He is serving jail term after being convicted in four out of five fodder scam cases in Jharkhand.
Despite the bail being issued, Yadav will not be free because he has been sentenced to 14 years in prison in connexion with the Dumka treasury embezzlement case. The Dumka case relates to the fraudulent withdrawal from the Dumka Treasury of Rs 3.5 crore by officials from the Department of Animal Husbandry between 1991 and 1996, when Yadav was the CM of undivided Bihar.
Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh granted bail to Lalu on the ground of having served half of the sentence already. The RJD leader will have to furnish two bail bonds of Rs 50,000 each and deposit security of Rs 50,000 in the court.
The case concerned the withdrawal of Rs 33.67 crore from the Chaibasa treasury during the year 1992-93, when the RJD leader was Chief Minister of Bihar.
He has been convicted in three cases related to the fodder scam including all total six cases in connection to misappropriation of public funds and there have been varying sentences awarded in these cases.
He has been in prison since 2017. Yadav when was convicted and sentenced to 3.5 years, 5 years and 14 years of jail terms in three fodder scam cases.
Yadav is concurrently serving these jail terms. Presently he is incarcerated and lodged at RIMS Director’s vacant bungalow in Ranchi and under-treatment of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS).
Yadav has been suffering from ‘Type 2’ diabetes and hypertension. He is a chronic kidney patient.
He was granted bail in Deoghar treasury case by the Jharkhand High Court in December 2013 in one of the fodder scam cases on grounds that he had served half of the 3.5 years of imprisonment awarded to him.
Notably, Yadav was barred and excluded from Parliament from contesting the elections.
