Lalu bail: SC refuses to interfere with HC order

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to interfere with the Jharkhand High Court order granting bail to RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in a fodder scam case. A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and PB Varale asked the high court to expedite the hearing on the pending appeals in the matter and decide them preferably within six months.

The top court was hearing CBI’s plea challenging a July 2019 order of the high court.

“We are not inclined to interfere with the impugned order...,” the bench said.

The CBI had challenged the high court order, saying it had “erroneously” suspended the sentence awarded by the trial court and released the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief on bail in one of the fodder scam cases. Yadav, a former chief minister of Bihar, was convicted in the case related to the Deoghar treasury, which involved alleged defalcation of Rs 89 lakh. The special CBI court convicted Yadav and sentenced him to a three-and-a-half-year jail term.

The high court had suspended the sentence and granted bail to Yadav in the case of alleged fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from the Deoghar treasury on the ground that he had already completed half of the sentence.