Jharkhand HC Grants Bail To Lalu Prasad Yadav In Chaibasa Treasury Scam Case

Jharkhand High Court on Friday granted bail to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad in a fodder scam case related to fraudulent withdrawal of money from the Chaibasa treasury during his tenure as Chief Minister of Bihar.

Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh granted bail on the ground that Lalu has served half of the prison term awarded by the CBI court in the case. The court, however, directed Lalu to pay fine of Rs 2,00,000 and submit two sureties of Rs 50,000 each.

Lalu will, however, remain in prison as he is also serving a sentence term of 14 (two sentences of seven years running consecutively) years in another fodder scam case related to illegal withdrawal of money from the Dumka treasury

Assistant solicitor general of India Rajiv Sinha who appeared for the CBI said that he opposed the bail on the ground that Lalu has not filed an application before the trail court and high court for concurrent running of the prison terms awarded to him in different fodder scam cases related to Deoghar, Dumka and Chaibasa trasuries. Sinha pleaded under the circumstances the term served by Lalu in Deoghar case be not counted with that Chaibasa case.

Sinha said, "The court, however, granted bail on the grounds of parity in counting of half-term of prison stating that it has allowed bail using similar yardstick in appeals in which the petitioners were convicted in more than one case."

The  lawyer Prabhat Kumar who was also representing Lalu said, " We would file an interlocutory application for bail in the Dumka case as well after completion of half-term of sentence."