Lalu's bail petition does not come up for hearing in Jharkhand HC

Ranchi: Jailed RJD president Lalu Prasad's bail petition in the three fodder scam cases filed in the Jharkhand High Court could not come up for hearing on Friday as they were not listed together.

The petition is now likely to be heard next week as only one of the three cases was listed in the court of Justice Apresh Kumar Singh.

On December 11, the former Bihar chief minister had urged the court to grant him bail owing to his old age and ailments.

In his plea, Prasad said he was 71-years-old and suffering from diabetes, blood pressure and other ailments. He said that he had got bail in one of the four fodder scam cases; therefore bail be granted to him in the other cases.

Prasad was convicted in fodder scam cases pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of money from Deoghar, Dumka and two Chaibasa treasury cases.

He got bail in one of the Chaibasa case.

Meanwhile, Prasad is facing a fifth fodder scam case pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of money from Doranda treasury.

The RJD chief, who was in jail since December last year, is now under treatment at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Ranchi.

Meanwhile, the same court Friday set aside the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) courts direction to issue summons against former Bihar chief secretary V S Dubey asking that he be made an accused in a fodder scam case pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of money from Dumka treasury.

Reserving the judgement after hearing on the matter earlier, the bench of Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh observed that he was surprised that the CBI court had directed to issue summons to make a person an accused, who unearthed the fodder scam when he was the finance secretary.

Dubey had made a probe report on the fodder scam and handed it to the then Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad in early 90s in the combined Bihar.Dubey moved the high court after the special CBI court in Ranchi had asked to issue summons under section 319 to make Dubey an accused in the Dumka treasury case.

Hearing a separate petition, the same court granted bail to former RJD MP Jagdish Sharma in one of the fodder scam cases.

However, Sharma has to stay in the jail as he has not got bail in another fodder scam case pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of money from the Chaibasa treasury.

The court of Apresh Kumar Singh granted bail to Sharma after the latter contended that he got seven years prison term in connection with Deoghar Treasury fodder scam case while other political leaders got 3.5 years jail term despite having the same witnesses in the case. Sharma also informed the court that he was acquitted in one of the fodder scam cases. Besides this, he has already spent 31 months in prison and urged for bail, after which relief was granted to him.