JHARKHAND HC REJECTS LALU’S BAIL PETITION
He has already secured bail in two cases on the ground of completion of half his sentence
RANCHI: In a major setback to RJD chief Lalu Prasad, the Jharkhand high court Friday declined bail to the leader in one of the fodder scam cases.
Prasad has been languishing in jail since December 23, 2017, after his conviction in three fodder scam cases in quick succession.
He 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.
The HC rejected Prasad’s bail application after finding that the leader was yet to serve about two months in custody, to complete half of the seven-year sentence.“Court stated that the exact number of days still to be served by Prasad would be mentioned in the order sheet after proper computation,” said assistant solicitor general and CBI’s counsel Rajiv Sinha.
RANCHI: In a major setback to RJD chief Lalu Prasad, the Jharkhand high court Friday declined bail to the leader in one of the fodder scam cases.
Prasad has been languishing in jail since December 23, 2017, after his conviction in three fodder scam cases in quick succession.
He 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.
The bench of justice Aparesh Kumar Singh rejected Prasad’s bail application after finding that the leader was yet to serve about two months in custody, to complete half of the seven-year sentence.“Court stated that the exact number of days still to be served by Prasad would be mentioned in the order sheet after proper computation,” said assistant solicitor general and CBI’s counsel Rajiv Sinha.
Representing Prasad, Supreme Court’s senior advocate Kapil Sibal urged the court to adjourn the case for two months and not to dismiss it.
However, CBI’s counsel and assistant solicitor general Rajiv Sinha raised objection arguing that the court had heard the matter at length as Prasad fully contested the case right from the beginning. He requested the court to pass a final order as the leader can file a fresh petition after two months.Prasad argued that he had completed half of the seven-year sentence (42 months) in custody in the third case and urged the court to grant him 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, the CBI, vehemently opposed Prasad’s claim and argued that the leader is yet to serve more than four months in custody to complete the half sentence. The agency had also submitted a bundle of lower court’s order sheets of last 21 years to buttress its claim.
The aforesaid fodder scam case against Prasad relates to
As per court, the exact number of days to be served by Prasad will be mentioned in order sheet after proper computation. RAJIV SINHA, CBI’s counsel
fraudulent withdrawal of ₹3.76 crore from Dumka treasury during December 1995 to January 1996.A special CBI court, in 2018, had sentenced Prasad to 14 years of imprisonment — seven under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Act and another seven under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act — in the said case. It had expressly said both sentences would run consecutively.
Prasad’s Ranchi-based lawyer Prabhat Kumar said the high court was considering the maximum seven-year sentence for the purpose of bail.
The RJD chief 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 the sentence.
Prasad, 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.
The RJD chief had suffered a jolt in the fodder scam case on September 30, 2013, when a trial court in Ranchi held him guilty in the first of six cases against him. The conviction got him five years in prison, disqualification from Parliament and a ban on contesting elections.
He was given bail by the Supreme Court in December that year. The leader is still facing trial in two fodder scam cases one each in Ranchi and Patna.