On Friday, the Jharkhand High Court granted bail to the president of Rashtriya Janata Dal and the former Chief Minister of Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav in the Chaibasa Treasury Scam case.
The bench headed by Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh granted bail to Lalu Prasad citing that he has served half of the prison term awarded by the CBI court in the case. Further, the court directed Lalu to pay a fine of Rs 2,00,000 and submit two sureties of Rs 50,000 each. However, Yadav will remain in jail since the Dumka treasury case is still pending.
The present case involves a fodder scam case related to the fraudulent withdrawal of money from the Chaibasa treasury during his tenure as Chief Minister of Bihar. The scam involved the withdrawal of Rs 33.67 crore from the Chaibasa Treasury during 1992 – 1993 when Yadav was Chief Minister of Bihar.
In December 2017, Yadav was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment after being convicted in the fodder scam for offenses under Section 120B read with Section 420, 467, 468, 471, 477(A) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 13(i)(c)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
He was convicted in four different cases pertaining to the fodder scam of which 2 were related to the Chaibasa Treasury, 1 related to the Deoghar Treasury, and another related to the Dumka Treasury. Lalu was found guilty in the Deoghar Treasury case, for embezzlement of Rs. 89 lakhs between 1991 and 1994. Later in July 2019, the Jharkhand High Court had granted bail to Yadav in the case, while also suspending the sentence.
Nonetheless, trial in the Doranda Treasury case is still ongoing.
Earlier, Yadav was shifted to the residence of the director of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) hospital, where he had been admitted for months owing to poor health, to prevent exposure to the COVID-19 virus.
