HC extends bail period of Lalu Prasad till Aug 20

Ranchi: The Jharkhand High Court today extended the provisional bail period of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, convicted in four fodder scam cases, till August 20 on medical grounds. The period was extended by Justice Apresh Kumar Singh. “We have prayed for the extension of the bail period for three more months on medical grounds,” Prasad’s counsel Prabhat Kumar told PTI.

The high court had on May 11 granted six weeks provisional bail to Prasad and again extended it till August 14, Chitaranjan Sinha, another counsel for the RJD chief, said. Prasad is currently being treated at the Asian Heart Institute in Mumbai, Sinha said. He has been convicted in four cases of the multi-crore fodder scam. 

The cases relate to illegal withdrawal of money from government treasuries in different districts for the the animal husbandry department in undivided Bihar in the 1990s when the RJD was in power in the state.  On September 30, 2013, he was convicted in the first fodder scam case related to the Chaibasa Treasury. 

The former Bihar chief minister was again convicted in another case related to the Chaibasa Treasury on January 24, 2018. On February 23 and March 19, he was convicted in cases related to the Deoghar Treasury and the Dumka Treasury respectively.