The Jharkhand High Court on Friday granted bail to RJD supremo and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad in the Doranda treasury case, in which a CBI special court had on February this year sentenced him to five years in prison.
Lalu Prasad, 73, who was in custody following his conviction is at present undergoing treatment at AIIMS in Delhi, was sentenced by the CBI special court on February 21 to five years in jail and imposed a fine of Rs 60 lakh for withdrawal of Rs 139.35 crore from Doranda treasury (in Ranchi) in the multi-crore fodder scam case.
“The Jharkhand High Court has accepted our petition for suspension of the sentence and has granted bail on the uniform yardstick of half custody and health issues, he will be released soon. He will have to deposit Rs 1 lakh surety amount and Rs 10 lakh as fine. We had pleaded that he has served half of his five-year sentence in this case. Prasad has already served 41 months in jail .… We had submitted the trial court’s certified copy,” said Prabhat Kumar, the legal counsel of Lalu Prasad.
The court order given by Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh is expected to be communicated to the lower court by Tuesday and we will submit the bail bond and obtain release order, Kumar said.
Significantly, the Rs 950-crore scam relates to fraudulent withdrawal of public funds from government treasuries in various districts of undivided Bihar.
The RJD supremo, who has been sentenced to 14 years in prison and slapped with a total fine of Rs 60 lakh, has secured bail in the four cases related to Dumka, Deoghar and Chaibasa treasuries.
The fodder scam came to light in January 1996 after a raid at the animal husbandry department. The CBI named Lalu Prasad as an accused in June 1997.
The agency framed charges against Lalu Prasad and former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra. In September 2013, the trial court convicted Lalu Prasad, Mishra and 45 more in one of the cases related to the fodder scam and Lalu Prasad was sent to Ranchi jail.
In December 2013, the Supreme Court granted bail to Lalu Prasad but in December 2017, the CBI court found him and 15 more guilty and sent them to Birsa Munda prison. The Jharkhand High Court granted bail to Lalu Prasad in April 2021.
The 950-crore fodder scam involved large-scale corruption in which funds meant for animal fodder were embezzled from multiple government treasuries across undivided Bihar. The animal husbandry department allegedly issued fake bills to facilitate the scam.Lalu Prasad legal counsels have challenged his conviction in four cases.
