Former Chief Minister and RJD president Lalu Prasad was granted bail by the Jharkhand High Court on Saturday in one of the three fodder scam cases. The order was passed by Justice A K Singh in Ranchi who overruled CBI’s demand not to grant bail to the incarcerated RJD chief. Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal argued on behalf of Lalu.
Lalu, who has been languishing in jail since December 2017, after the CBI court convicted him in different fodder scam cases, was recently shifted from Ranchi to AIIMS, New Delhi after he developed multiple organ ailments.
Earlier, Lalu was convicted and sentenced in three fodder scam cases related to fraudulent withdrawal from government treasuries in Dumka, Deogarh and Chaibasa, all part of the undivided Bihar (when Lalu was Chief Minister between 1990 and 1997).
While the Jharkhand HC had already granted him bail in Deogarh and Chaibasa case (where he had served half of the jail sentence in which he was awarded 3.5 years of imprisonment), the High Court on Saturday granted him bail in Dumka case too after Lalu served half of the jail sentence, a condition mandatory for securing bail.
“We are happy that Lalu Ji has been granted bail. All the poor and downtrodden in Bihar are happy over the development,” a relaxed Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu’s son, said after meeting his father in AIIMS, New Delhi.
Former Chief Minister of Bihar Rabri Devi and her daughter Misa Bharti, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP, too met Lalu in the hospital.
“We will seek the advice of doctors as to when and how to take Lalu ji back to Patna, as he is suffering from numerous ailments,” Tejashwi added.
Suffering from multiple ailments after being jailed in Ranchi’s Hotwar Jail, Lalu was eventually shifted to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi for proper medical treatment. His ailments included hypertension, chronic kidney disease and hypertrophy of the prostate.