Ranchi: Jharkhand High Court on Friday granted provisional bail for six weeks to former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad on health grounds.
The RJD chief, convicted and sentenced in three fodder scam cases, is currently in Patna on a three-day parole to attend son Tej Pratap's wedding. He can now surrender after six weeks.
Pleading on Lalu's behalf, Supreme Court senior advocate Abhishek Manusinghvi told the high court that his client was very sick and was required to take 19 pills a day.
His kidneys are 40 per cent damaged and his heart is also in a critical condition. His platelet count is also depleting and he requires continuous monitoring in a super speciality hospital, the advocate said, adding that Lalu was also diabetic and suffered from hypertension.
CBI counsel Rajeev Sinha argued that the RJD chief was not that unwell and his health had improved with treatment at RIMS in Ranchi. Hence, no bail should be granted.
The court of Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh, however, observed that the life of an individual was "very precious", be it of a convict or someone else, and granted Lalu provisional bail that would enable him to undergo treatment at Mumbai's Asian Heart Institute, Medanta in Gurgaon and BGS Global Hospital in Bangalore.
