CBI produces order sheets of last 21 yrs to oppose Lalu’s bail
The RJD chief last month submitted several lower court orders with detailed computation of the period of his custody
RANCHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has furnished a bundle of lower court order sheets of last 21 years, from 1997-2018, to put a major stumbling block for incarcerated RJD chief Lalu Prasad who is hoping to walk out from jail on bail this month.
“These order sheets running in not less than 60-70 pages show every minute detail including different custody periods Prasad served in this case between 1997 to 2018. On July 30, 1997, the leader was first remanded in custody as an undertrial accused in this case. For the period after 2018, there is no need to present documents as it is an admitted fact that Prasad has been serving
jail for over two years,” said assistant solicitor general and CBI’s counsel Rajiv Sinha.
Prasad has been languishing in jail since December 23, 2017, after his conviction in three fodder scam cases in quick succession. He was awarded varied terms of imprisonment in each of these three cases.
The former Bihar chief minister has already secured bail in two cases on the ground of
completion of half sentence. He moved bail application in the third and last case on similar ground in high court last year.
Prasad stated that he had completed half of the seven years sentence (42 months) in custody in the third case and urged the court to enlarge him on bail.
Supporting his claim, the RJD chief, last month, had submitted several lower court orders with detailed computation of the period of his custody.
However, CBI vehemently opposed Prasad’s claim and argued that the leader is yet to serve more than four months in custody to complete half sentence.
In order to buttress its argument, CBI furnished a bundle of lower court order sheets of last 21 years before the high court early this week. It also supplied another bundle of these order sheets to Prasad’s lawyer.
Sinha said, “Prasad would be completing 37 months and 12 days in custody on coming Friday, when the high court bench is slated to take up the matter again for hearing. The bench has now two sets of lower court order sheets submitted by us and Prasad as well. Now, the high court can fairly assess whose claim is correct.”
The aforesaid fodder scam case against Prasad relates to fraudulent withdrawal of ₹3.76 crore from Dumka treasury between December 1995 to January 1996.
A special CBI court, in 2018, had sentenced Prasad to 14 years of imprisonment, seven under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections and another seven under Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, in the said case.
It expressly said that both sentences would run consecutively.
However, Prasad’s lawyers hope that the high court will strike down this decision, and let the two sentences run concurrently. If that happens, Prasad will have to undergo seven-year imprisonment in this case.
Prasad’s lawyer Prabhat Kumar said that the high court for the purpose of bail was considering the maximum of seven years sentence.
Prasad was handed over 3.5 years and 5 years in prison in earlier two fodder scam cases in which he had secured bail after completing half of each of the sentence.
The RJD chief, who had been undergoing treatment in custody for over two years in Ranchi’s Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), was shifted to AIIMS, New Delhi, last month after his condition deteriorated.