Lalu Prasad moves apex court for bail

The matter is likely to come up for hearing on Friday

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking bail in the multi-crore fodder scam case in which he has been sentenced to five years' rigorous imprisonment.

The matter is likely to come up for hearing Friday as senior counsel P.H. Parekh mentioned it before the court of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

Lalu Prasad has challenged the Jharkhand High Court's Oct 31 interim order rejecting his plea for bail during the pendency of his appeal against the trial court order sentencing him to undergo an imprisonment of five years and a two fines totaling to an amount of Rs.25 lakh.

Faulting the high court order, Lalu Prasad in his petition has said that fellow accused R.K. Rana who too was convicted for the same offence as he was 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 the animal husbandry department and was sentenced to undergo sentence of five years.

The RJD chief further contended that another convict - the then minister for animal husbandry - who was given a 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 in as much as some of the co-accused, who are similarly situated, have been granted bail," he said in his petition.

It further said that while declining his bail plea, the high court has "failed to exercise judicially, the discretionary power conferred on it under Section 389 of the Code of Criminal Procedure" and it did not assign any reason for rejecting the bail plea, he argued.

Lalu Prasad said that entire case of prosecution was based on circumstantial evidence and thev evidence of two approvers that too was based on hearsay evidence which was inadmissible in the court.

Scotching the apprehension that he may disappear in the event of being granted bail, he said that he was a chief minister and the railway minister, is also the leader of a political party and until the date of his conviction in the present case, was a sitting member of parliament, "hence, is not likely to abscond from the country".

A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Ranchi Sep 30 convicted Lalu Prasad, another former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra, Janata Dal-United MP Jagdish Sharma and others in a fodder scam case, related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs.37.70 crore from Chaibasa treasury during 1994-1995 when Lalu Prasad was the chief minister.

Special CBI Judge Pravas Kumar Singh Oct 3 sentenced Lalu Prasad to five-year jail term and also slapped a Rs.25 lakh fine on him.