SC adjourns to Apr 22 hearing on CBI’s appeal against bail to Lalu

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned to April 22 the hearing on a plea filed by the CBI, challenging the bail granted by the Jharkhand High Court to RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in a scam related to the Deoghar treasury.

A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh deferred the matter, noting that the pleadings were not complete and some accused have died.

During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the CBI, argued that the high court has passed an illegal order and the sentence has been suspended in violation of law.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Lalu, submitted that some accused have not been served notice.

The court observed: “Both of us know what this special leave petition is. We think both of you know what the result is. We all know what the question of law is. The persons are in their 60s, 70s and 80s.

“The files are just languishing. We will give a date in April. Those cases in which the respondent has died, we will close them,” the bench said.

The Jharkhand High Court in July last year admitted an appeal by the CBI for increasing the period of sentence given to Yadav.

Yadav was convicted in the scam related to the Deoghar treasury, which involved alleged defalcation of Rs 89 lakh.

The special CBI court had convicted Yadav in the case and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for 3.5 years.

The CBI moved an appeal against the order, stating that Yadav was overall in charge of the animal husbandry department at that time.

Investigation had revealed that he was aware of the defalcation in the Deoghar treasury. Yet the lower court only awarded a sentence of 3.5 years for the offence, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years, it said.