Lalu Prasad granted release order from jail in fodder scam cases

Ranchi, May 16

RJD president Lalu Prasad was on Wednesday granted release order by trial courts from jail in accordance with the Jharkhand High Court’s verdict providing him provisional bail in all three cases of fodder scam on medical grounds.

The release order had been granted in all three cases of fodder scam in which Prasad had been convicted, his lawyer Prabhat Kumar told PTI.

While Special CBI court Judge Shivpal Singh granted release order to Prasad in two cases--RC 64A/96 (Chaibasa treasury) and RC 38A/96 (Dumka)--the CBI court of Judge SS Prasad provided the release permission in case number RC 68A/96 (Chaibasa), he said.

Kumar said they completed the formalities of signing bond and submitting sureties of Rs 50,000 each in the three cases to get the release order.

The release order had gone to the jail authorities so that Prasad could be allowed to go out of the prison, he said.

The lawyer said the bail in the three fodder scam cases would be effective from the day he is released from the jail.

RJD general secretary and MLA Bhola Yadav, who is camping at Ranchi, told PTI that they are planning to go to Patna by an evening flight after completing release formalities at the Birsa Munda prison, Hotwar.

A special Central Bureau of Investigation court had convicted Prasad on January 24 in the case RC-68A/96 related to the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.62 crore from the Chaibasa treasury and sentenced him to five years of imprisonment.

The RJD chief was convicted in the RC64A/96 case in connection with fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from Deoghar Treasury in the 1990s. He was awarded 3.5 years sentence in the case on December 23 last year.

The CBI court had held Prasad guilty in the case RC 38 A/96 pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 3.13 crore from Dumka treasury in the early 1990s.

Authorities at the Birsa Mundal jail in Ranchi had separately given him a three-day parole on May 10 to attend his elder son Tej Pratap Yadav’s wedding on May 12 in Patna.

Travel time was not included in the parole duration and Prasad returned to the prison on May 14, a day after his parole ended.

After returning to the jail, the RJD chief had to wait till Wednesday to get the release order from trial courts after the HC order granting him six-week provisional bail last week on medical grounds reached there.

The 69-year-old former chief minister of Bihar is suffering from diabetes, blood pressure, kidney problems and other ailments.

Bhola Yadav said that after returning to Patna, Prasad would go to Delhi, Mumbai and other places for specialised treatment during the privisional bail period.

The RJD supremo has been in jail since December 23 after being convicted in the Deoghar treasury case and sentenced to jail for three-and-a-half years. He was later convicted in the Chaibasa treasury case and sent to prison for five years and the Dumka treasury case and sentenced for 14 years.

The over Rs 900-crore fodder scam cases are related to the illegal withdrawal of money from government treasury by the animal husbandry department in undivided Bihar in the 1990s when Prasad was the chief minister. PTI