Lalu to move J'khand HC for bail

Ranchi: RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, who is lodged in a jail here after his conviction by a CBI court in a fodder scam case, would move the Jharkhand High Court for bail within the next few days, his lawyer said.

“We will read the copy of the judgment and move the high court either on Friday or next Monday,” Prasad’s lawyer Prabhat Kumar told PTI. To a query on whether the RJD chief would move the court for parole following his sister’s death, Kumar said it was not under consideration.

“No, it is not under consideration,” he said. On December 23, the former Bihar chief minister was convicted in the case, relating to the illegal withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from the Deoghar treasury between 1990 and 1994.

On January 6, he was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail by the court. This was the second conviction of the former Union minister in the scam that was reported, for the first time, 21 years ago.

On September 30, 2013, the 69-year-old RJD leader was convicted in another fodder scam case for the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore from the Chaibasa treasury and was awarded a five-year jail term. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court after having spent over two-and-a-half months in jail.

Prasad is an accused in three more fodder scam cases in Ranchi, relating to the “fraudulent” withdrawal of Rs 3.97 crore from the Dumka treasury, Rs 36 crore from the Chaibasa treasury and Rs 184 crore from the Doranda treasury respectively.