JHARKHAND HC REJECTS LALU’S BAIL PETITION IN FODDER SCAM CASE

RANCHI: The Jharkhand high court on Friday refused to grant bail to former Bihar chief minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad bail in connection with a fodder scam case, which involved a fraudulent withdrawal of

₹89.27 lakh from the Deoghar treasury. Prasad has been serving his prison term at the Birsa Munda Central Jail since his conviction in two fodder scam cases. He was awarded a three and a half year prison term in the Deoghar treasury case in December of last year and an additional five years in another fodder scam case, which involved fraudulent withdrawal of ₹33.13 crore from Chaibasa treasury, in January. The bench of Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh rejected Prasad’s bail plea in the Deoghar treasury case after it found ‘no merit’ in the petition. It, however, fixed March 9 as the date for hearing the RJD chief’s bail petition in the Chaibasa treasury case. Prasad’s counsel Prabhat Kumar said they were prepared to move the apex court. “We will move the Supreme Court only after going through the high court’s order which is yet to be received,” he said.

further illegal mining, and was taking action accordingly.

The assurance failed to placate the Supreme Court. “Then why do we still have these cases pending with us? You must take instructions. This is too much,” it said, asking the Centre to take up the issue with the states concerned.

Last August, the top court had come down heavily on illegal mining of manganese in Odisha – imposing a heavy penalty on 152 iron ore and manganese lessees. These mines were found to have conducted operations without forest and environment clearances between 2000 and 2011, sometimes even beyond the permitted area.

The court had said that extracting iron ore and manganese in violation of the Environment Impact Assessment notifications of 1994 or 2006 constitutes illegal mining, and compensation at 100% of the mineral’s price should be recovered from 2000-2001 onwards in accordance with the law. All mining projects having a lease area of five hectares or more were required to have an environment clearance with effect from September 14, 2006. This month, the top court cancelled 88 mining leases in Goa after ruling that the licences were accorded in violation of environmental rules.