RANCHI: Rejecting the arguments given by the CBI, the Jharkhand High Court on Friday granted bail to RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, with a pre-condition that he will deposit Rs 10 lakh in the court. Yadav moved the Jharkhand High Court challenging his conviction in fodder scam case RC47A/96, in which he had been awarded a five-year jail term and a fine of Rs 60 lakh by the special CBI Court in Ranchi.
“The Jharkhand High Court has granted bail to Lalu Yadav on the condition that he will have to deposit a fine of Rs 10 lakh in the court. We had filed bail application on the ground of completing half of the sentencing awarded by the special CBI Court as he has already completed 42 months of sentencing in this case, which was considered by the High Court, and hence it granted bail to him,” said Lalu Yadav’s counsel Prabhat Kumar. The CBI, opposing the bail application, argued that Lalu has not yet completed half of the sentencing awarded by the trail court, which was rejected by the court, he added.
Kumar further added that they had attached all the documents in support of his plea that Lalu Yadav has already completed 42 months in jail, along with the certified copies of the orders of the trial court, depicting on which date he was sent to jail and when he came out. Half of the sentencing of Lalu gets completed only after 30 months in jail, he said.
“Considering the documents provided by us, the court rejected the arguments presented by the CBI and granted bail to our client,” said Advocate Prabhat Kumar. Incidentally, the RJD chief was granted bail by the Jharkhand High Court in fodder
scam case RC38A/96, related to illegal withdrawal of Rs 3.13 crore from the Dumka Treasury, on April 17, 2021 and was released from jail on April 30, but sent to the jail again after his conviction in RC47A/96 on February 15, 2022.
The RJD chief, after being convicted in the case on February 15, was sent to jail but shifted to RIMS immediately owing to his poor health condition. As his health deteriorated further, Yadav was shifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) - New Delhi. A medical board, constituted to review his health condition, took the decision after his creatinine level further increases from 4.1 to 4.6 at RIMS.
The RJD chief, said to be a chronic patient of hypertension, diabetes, heart and kidney ailments, is currently lodged at AIIMS – New Delhi.
Besides RC47A/96 related to Doranda Treasury, Yadav has also been convicted in four other multi-crore fodder scam cases related to Chaibasa Treasury (RC20A/96) on September 30, 2013, another case related to Chaibasa Treasury (RC68A/96) on January 24, 2018, Deoghar Treasury (RC 64A/96) on February 23, 2018 and Dumka Treasury (RC38A/96) on February 19, 2021. He, however, secured bail in all the five cases.