RANCHI: The Jharkhand High Court yesterday extended till July 3 the provisional bail of Rashtriya Janta Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is at present admitted in a Mumbai hospital, his lawyer said.
The provisional bail, earlier granted by the high court to Prasad on medical grounds, was scheduled to lapse on June 27.
The court of Acting Chief Justice D N Patel extended the bail period of the former Bihar chief minister till July 3, his lawyer Prabhat Kumar told PTI.
The order came on a petition seeking four months bail for the RJD chief on medical grounds, he said, adding further hearing on the plea would take place on June 29.
The maximum prison term granted to 70-year-old Prasad in connection with the fodder scam is 14 years.
The case pertained to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 3.13 crore from the treasury in Dumka, now in Jharkhand, in the early 1990s. Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh had on May 11 granted a six-week provisional bail to the RJD president.
Prasad has been convicted in four cases in connection the multi-crore-rupee fodder scam. Another case relating to the scam is pending before the trial court.
His close aide Bhola Yadav told PTI that the RJD chief is at present admitted in Mumbai's Asian Heart Institute where he will be operated for fistula on Sunday.
Bhola, who is the RJD national general secretary and an MLA in Bihar, said Prasad needs to go to Bengaluru and Delhi for some other urgent medical purposes after the surgery.
Currently, he is with his party chief in Mumbai. Adhering to the conditions of provisional bail, Lalu has avoided participation in any function, political or social, he said.
On June 11, the RJD chief's wife and sons--Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav--celebrated his birthday but Prasad was not present, he said, adding Prasad stayed put at the Circular Road bungalow allowed in name of Rabri Devi.
He also did not attend the iftar organised by the RJD on June 13 at Tejashwi Yadav's bungalow, Yadav said.
The fodder scam cases related to fraudulent withdrawal of over Rs 90o crore by the animal husbandry department when Prasad was the chief minister of undivided Bihar in the 1990s.