The Supreme Court has decided to hear the appeals challenging the bail granted to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Chief, Lalu Prasad Yadav, in the Fodder Scam Cases on August 25th. This decision comes in response to the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) challenge to the bail granted by the Jharkhand High Court to Yadav.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Additional Solicitor General, SV Raju, representing the CBI, approached the bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and also including Justices Sanjay Karol and Manoj Misra. He requested an early listing of the matter, emphasizing its significance.
The Jharkhand High Court, on April 17, 2021, granted bail to Yadav in a case associated with the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 3.13 crores from the Dumka Treasury. The court’s rationale for granting the bail was that Yadav had “served half of his prison term.” The RJD Chief has faced convictions in four distinct fodder scam cases, all of which revolve around fraudulent withdrawals from the Deoghar, Dumka, and Chaibasa treasuries in Jharkhand.
Detailing the history of Yadav’s legal battles, the court records show that in 2019, he was granted bail in the Deoghar treasury case. Further, on October 9, 2020, the Jharkhand High Court granted him bail in the Chaibasa Treasury case, once again on the grounds that he had
“undergone half of the sentence imposed on him.”
Justice DY Chandrachud, during the proceedings, remarked,
“We strongly deprecate this. This is nothing but a browbeating tactic. Will a contempt also lie against the judges now if cases are not listed?”
Yadav’s incarceration began on December 23, 2017, post his conviction in three fodder scam cases. However, he managed to secure bail in the cases related to the Dumka, Deoghar, and Chaibasa treasuries. In a separate case, the RJD leader was convicted and sentenced to a five-year prison term and fined Rs. 60 lakhs by a Special Court in Ranchi. This case was related to the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs. 139.35 crores from the Doranda Treasury. In a subsequent development in April, the Jharkhand High Court granted him bail in this fifth case as well.
The case is officially titled “State of Jharkhand V. Lalu Prasad @ Lalu Prasad Yadav, SLP (Crl) 1550/2020.”
