The Jharkhand High Court on Friday granted bail to Rashtriya Janata Jal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad in the Doranda Treasury Case in which a CBI special court had sentenced him to five years in prison.The 73-year-old Prasad is in custody following his conviction and sentencing by a CBI court in February in a fodder scam case involving embezzlement of over Rs 139 crore from Doranda treasury.
“The Jharkhand High Court has accepted our petition for suspension of the sentence and has granted bail. We had pleaded that he has served half of his five-year sentence in this case. Prasad has already served 41 months in jail…We had submitted the trial court’s certified copy. The court has granted bail,” Prabhat Kumar, counsel of Lalu Prasad told PTI.The High Court order is expected to be communicated to the lower court by Tuesday and they would submit the bail bond and obtain release order, Kumar said.The Jharkhand High Court on April 8 had deferred the hearing into a petition filed by the incarcerated leader challenging his conviction in a fodder scam case.The former Bihar chief minister was sentenced to five years in prison and slapped a fine of Rs 60 lakh by a special CBI court in Ranchi in connection with the fifth fodder scam case involving embezzlement of over Rs 139 crore by Doranda treasury.
