Incarcerated Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Friday got bail from the Jharkhand High Court in a case of fraudulent withdrawal of money from the Doranda treasury of Jharkhand.
Earlier, the CBI special court, while hearing the multi-crore fodder scam, had sentenced Mr. Prasad to five years in jail.
Mr. Prasad was sentenced in connection with the fraudulent withdrawal of ₹139.5 crore from the Doranda treasury in the late 1990s in undivided Bihar.
“The court accepted our petition for suspension of the sentence in the case and granted bail to Mr. Prasad as he has already served over half of the five-year sentence in the case. The CBI opposed the bail saying he has not yet served half of the sentence, but the court granted bail,” said Prabhat Kumar, Mr. Prasad’s lawyer, in Ranchi.
The Doranda treasury case is the fifth case related to the ₹950-crore fodder scam against the former Bihar Chief Minister, who has been in jail for the last 42 months.
Mr. Prasad is currently admitted to AIIMS Delhi owing to multiple ailments. In the other four cases, Mr. Prasad has already been granted bail by the court.
“He is now likely to come out of jail after getting bail in the Doranda treasury case,” said an RJD leader.
An Iftar party is due to be organised on Friday by Tejashwi Yadav, Mr. Prasad’s younger son and heir apparent, at 10 Circular Road, the official residence of Rabri Devi, wife of Mr. Prasad.
The multi-crore Animal Husbandry Department case, which was popularly known as the fodder scam case, in which fodder for animals was said to be ferried on trucks and lorries bearing registration numbers of scooters and motorcycles, was busted in the mid-1990s.
