The Jharkhand High Court on Friday rejected the bail plea of former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav in the Dumka treasury case, reported the Hindustan Times. Yadav, who is currently in custody after he was convicted in multiple cases related to a fodder scam, has served most of his prison sentence at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Ranchi, due to various ailments.
The politician will now have to file a new bail plea after two months, reported India Today.
Yadav has been in jail since December 2017 after being convicted in at least five cases related to the fodder scam that was exposed in 1996, involving the embezzlement of around Rs 1,000 crore from the state exchequer for the purchase of fictitious medicines and fodder for cattle. He was the chief minister of the state at the time. The case for which he filed the bail plea involves the embezzlement of Rs 3.5 crore from the Dumka treasury by Bihar’s Animal Husbandry Department officials between 1991 and 1996 during Yadav’s tenure.
The RJD chief has already been granted bail in two other cases related to the scam, the Chaibasa Treasury case and the Deoghar Treasury case.
On December 11, the Jharkhand High Court deferred the bail plea hearing of the former Bihar chief minister in the fodder scam case by six weeks. The hearing was adjourned as Yadav’s lawyer had sought six weeks’ time to reply to a supplementary affidavit filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation and to also collect verified documents on the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief’s judicial custody.
The CBI had then said that Yadav has completed only 34 months and some days in custody, which is eight months short of the requisite time period for early release. But Yadav’s lawyer had contended that the RJD chief had completed 42 months and 28 days in prison.
Yadav was shifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital in Delhi from the Ranchi hospital on the night of January 23, after his health deteriorated. The senior Rashtriya Janata Dal leader developed breathing difficulties, and was treated at the Ranchi hospital for a lung infection.
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