Apex court grants bail to Lalu Prasad

The Supreme Court Friday granted bail to jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad, over two months after he was convicted by a Ranchi court in a corruption case and sentenced to five years jail.

A bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi, while granting bail to the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief, noted that similarly situated other accused in the fodder scam case have already been granted bail.

Of the 44 accused in the case, 37 have already been granted bail while bail pleas of six others are under consideration of the trial court. Lalu Prasad is the only one whose bail plea was rejected by the lower courts.

The apex court also noted that of the five years' jail awarded to Lalu Prasad, he has already undergone one year of the sentence in two phases, which included incarceration for 10 months during the course of trial and another two months since he was convicted and sentenced to jail.

It has left it to the Ranchi trial court to decide on the conditions to be imposed on the former Bihar chief minister before he is freed on bail.

Lalu Prasad was awarded five years' imprisonment by the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Ranchi in September for his involvement in a fodder scam case. A fine of Rs.25 lakh was also slapped on him.

The court convicted him, former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra and 42 others for fraudulently withdrawing Rs.37.7 crore from Chaibasa treasury when Lalu Prasad was the chief minister of undivided Bihar.

The CBI which was issued notice Nov 29 did not oppose Lalu Prasad's plea for bail.

Appearing for Lalu Prasad, senior counsel Ram Jethmalani told the court that the former railway minister has already undergone a year of imprisonment and the Jharkhand High Court will take about seven to eight years before his plea before it is decided.

He also told the court that other similarly placed people have already been granted bail.

Lalu Prasad moved the apex court, challenging the Jharkhand High Court's Oct 31 interim order dismissing his bail plea.

Faulting the high court order, Lalu Prasad's petition said that R.K.Rana, who too was convicted for the same offence and awarded five years' rigorous imprisonment, was granted bail six days before his bail plea was rejected.

The petition said that in 2009, Rana was convicted in another case relating to animal husbandry department and was sentenced to undergo sentence of five years.

The RJD leader contended that another convict, the then animal husbandry department official, who was given three-year sentence was granted bail by the trial court itself.

"The petitioner (Lalu Prasad) has been treated differently in the matter of grant of bail inasmuch as some of the co-accused, who are similarly situated, have been granted bail," his petition said.

He argued the entire case of prosecution was based on circumstantial evidence and the evidence of two approvers, that too was based on hearsay evidence which was inadmissible in the court.