Lalu Prasad Yadav gets Supreme Court relief in Deoghar fodder case
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the Central Bureau of Investigation's appeal against the Jharkhand High Court's 2019 order granting bail to former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in the Deoghar fodder scam case.
The case relates to the alleged embezzlement of Rs 89 lakh from the Deoghar treasury between 1991 and 1994, when Yadav was Bihar's chief minister. He was convicted in the case in 2017. The Jharkhand High Court granted him bail in 2019 after suspending his sentence, prompting the CBI to challenge the order before the Supreme Court in 2020.
The CBI argued that the High Court had wrongly concluded that Yadav had completed half of his sentence by treating prison terms in multiple fodder scam convictions as running concurrently. The agency maintained that, unless specifically directed by a court, sentences in separate convictions begin only after the previous sentence has been served.
Yadav's counsel opposed the CBI's contention, arguing that the High Court had exercised its discretion while applying a uniform standard in granting bail.
Refusing to interfere with the High Court's order, the Supreme Court directed that Yadav's pending appeal be heard expeditiously, preferably within six months.
Apart from the Deoghar case, Yadav has also been convicted in the Dumka and Chaibasa fodder scam cases involving the fraudulent withdrawal of government funds meant for the purchase of medicines and cattle fodder in the early 1990s.
Inputs from Live Law