HC grants 6-week provisional bail to Lalu for treatment

Jharkhand high court on Friday granted a six-week provisional bail to the incarcerated RJD chief Lalu Prasad for treatment after hearing all the three fodder scam cases in which he has been convicted.

The bail which will enable him to undergo treatment at any of three superspecialty hospitals of his choice comes with a rider that he won’t attend any political rally or indulge in politicking. The bench of justice Aparesh Kumar Singh granted the provisional bail on the condition that the RJD leader would furnish two sureties of ₹50,000 each and surrender his passport before the court.

The court also directed Prasad to furnish a report of the treatment that he would undergo in the coming six weeks on the next date of hearing.

Prasad, who has been languishing in custody since December 23 last year after his conviction in three different fodder scam cases, had undergone treatment for about a month in April at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. He was shifted back to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ranchi, on May 1.

Prasad is currently in Patna on a three-day parole to attend his elder son Tej Pratap Yadav’s wedding scheduled for May 12.

“We will furnish the two sureties before the trial court after Prasad returns from the threeday parole on May 14 to secure his release on provisional bail. He is likely to be released by Tuesday or Wednesday,” said Prasad’s advocate Prabhat Kumar.

Senior Supreme Court advocate and Congressman Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing on behalf of Prasad, argued that the RJD chief was suffering from life threatening diseases, including chronic kidney disease, which had reached a stage where it might lead to kidney failure.

Referring to the medical reports of AIIMS and RIMS, Singhvi argued that Prasad’s serious health conditions required close monitoring of blood sugar, blood pressure, kidney function and heart, which was not possible in custody. He urged the court to grant provisional bail for treatment at either of the three hospitals — Medanta, Gurgaon; Asian Heart Institute, Mumbai and BGS Global Hospitals, Bengaluru.

Assistant solicitor-general Rajiv Sinha, representing the CBI raised serious objection to Prasad’s allegation that the AIIMS medical report was “manipulated”. He wondered how could he make such a vague allegation in his affidavit and that too against a premier medical institution of the country, which sent him back to RIMS in a fit and stable condition. Singhvi, however, said he was withdrawing that statement and urged the court to expunge the same.

RANCHI:The