The bail plea of Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad in the case pertaining to the fraudulent withdrawal of ₹3.13 crore from Dumka treasury was deferred till November 27 by the Jharkhand High Court on Friday.
“Lalu Prasad has served over half of the jail term in the case, so we had applied for bail but CBI deliberately did not file counter affidavit in the case and the court asked CBI to file it by November 23 so that the case could be heard on November 27,” Prabhat Kumar, Mr. Prasad’s lawyer, told The Hindu.
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Mr. Prasad was convicted in the Dumka (Jharkhand) treasury case and was awarded five years’ jail term.
In the multi-crore fodder scam cases in Jharkhand, Mr. Prasad was convicted in four out of total five cases and had got bail in three cases.
In October this year, he was granted bail by the Jharkhand High Court in Chaibasa treasury case (RC 68 (a) / 1996) as he had served half of the jail term.
Currently Mr. Prasad is undergoing treatment at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences for multiple diseases. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he is housed at Kelly Bungalow on the hospital premises.
After being convicted in the fodder scam cases, the RJD chief has been at the Birsa Munda central jail of Jharkhand since December 2017.
There were high expectations in the party circles that Mr. Prasad would get bail in the Dumka treasury case and be released from jail.
Recently, his younger son and anointed heir Tejashwi Yadav in his campaign for the Bihar Assembly poll said that his father would come out of jail on November 9 and there would be a “farewell of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, next day”.
“Laluji is getting released on November 9 which also happens to be my birthday. However, the next day on November 10, Nitishji will have his farewell,” Mr. Yadav said.
