The Jharkhand High Court on Friday granted bail to Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in the Rs 139.35-crore Doranda treasury case related to the fodder scam, The Indian Express reported.
Yadav’s counsel had filed the bail application on the grounds that he is in poor health. The former Bihar chief minister is 73 years old.
“He will be released soon,” Yadav’s counsel told The Indian Express. “He will have to deposit Rs 1 lakh surety amount and Rs 10 lakh as fine.”
A special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Ranchi had on February 21 sentenced Yadav to jail for five years in the case. The court had also imposed a fine of Rs 60 lakh on him.
The alleged fodder scam, exposed in 1996, pertains to the embezzlement of around Rs 1,000 crore from the state exchequer to buy medicine and fodder for cattle that did not actually exist. Yadav was the chief minister of the state at the time.
Yadav has already been convicted in four other cases related to the scam. They pertain to the alleged fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore and Rs 33.13 crore from the Chaibasa treasury, Rs 89.27 crore from the Deoghar treasury and Rs 3.76 crore from the Dumka treasury.
A total of 170 persons had been accused in the Doranda case. Out of them, 55 have died, seven became government witnesses, two admitted to the charges against them and six persons are absconding.
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