NEW DELHI, Apr 17: The Rashtriya Janata Dal president and the former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav was on Saturday granted bail by the Jharkhand High Court in a case linked to the fodder scam and may now finally walk out of the jail.
Currently being admitted in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi for treatment, Yadav, a former union minister, was convicted in four cases related to the fodder scam of the early nineties but has already secured bail in three of the cases.
The case in which he was granted bail on Saturday pertained to the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 3.5 crore from the Dumka treasury by Animal Husbandry Department officials between 1991 and 1996, when Lalu was the chief minister of Bihar. The trial court had held Lalu guilty under various sections including conspiracy, cheating, forgery and criminal breach of trust and was awarded seven years of imprisonment by the trial court.
His application for bail was earlier rejected in the sessions court. As per his lawyer, Lalu had already served 3.5 years in jail completing half the sentences and was liable to secure bail.
Lalu is being treated at AIIMS, New Delhi. He was shifted to the hospital from Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Ranchi on January 23 after his health deteriorated. Lalu has been in hospital since August, 2018.
Kapil Sibal, who attended the court session virtually, had earlier said the ailing RJD supremo has served more than half the sentence that was awarded to him and urged the court to release him on bail.
Meanwhile, in Delhi the Republic Day Red Fort massacre accused Deep Sidhu was re-arrested after he secured bail in another case registered by the crime branch of Delhi police. As the Red Fort is maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), it filed a separate complaint against Deep Sidhu detailing how the mob broke open the walls, caused damage and ransacked the fort complex office.
The Punjabi actor was arrested on February 9 on charges of inciting protesters. Since then, the accused was in custody with 14 days of remand in police custody. Noting that the accused won’t be able to interfere with the evidence, as these are mostly video recordings posted on social media, special judge Neelofer Abida Perveen granted him bail on Friday on a personal bond of ₹30,000 and two sureties of a like amount in the case filed by the crime branch.
Farmers who have been protesting against three agricultural laws since November last year took out a tractor rally on January 26. The rally, which was supposed to be peaceful, turned violent when a group of protesters deviated from the pre-decided route and entered the capital. After a face-off with the police at Delhi’s ITO, the protesters moved towards Red Fort, breached it and hoisted the religious flag on it. In their way, they clashed with police, broke security cameras and wreaked havoc following which the Red Fort was closed till January 31.
Deep Sidhu’s lawyer has been denying any link with the rampage and said Deep Sidhu was not present there when the violence took place.
(Manas Dasgupta)