Lalu denied bail in fodder scam case

In a setback to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief

Lalu Prasad, the Jharkhand high court on Friday declined to grant bail to the former Bihar chief minister in one of the fodder scam cases. Prasad has been in jail since December 2017 after being convicted in quick succession in three cases related to the scam. He has already secured bail in two cases on grounds that he had completed half his sentence -an eligibility provision defined under Section 436 A of the Code of Criminal Procedure. He moved a bail application in the third case on similar grounds in the high court in 2020. The bench of justice Aparesh Kumar Singh, however, rejected the application after finding that the leader had spent two months short of half his seven-year sentence in prison. The fodder scam case relates to fraudulent withdrawals of ₹3.76 crore from the Dumka treasury between December 1995 to January 1996.