Jharkhand HC admits Lalu's petition against conviction

RANCHI: The Jharkhand High Court on Friday admitted Lalu Prasad's petition challenging the special CBI court's judgment in a fodder scam case in which he was sentenced to 3.5 years imprisonment.
The court of Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh admitted Lalu's petition, which he filed through his counsels. The court sought records pertaining to the case RC 64 A/96, which involves fraudulent withdrawals of Rs 89.27 lakh by the Bihar animal husbandry department from the Deoghar district treasury, from the special CBI court within two weeks.

The former Bihar CM was convicted in the case on December 23 last year. The special CBI court handed him a 3.5 year jail term and Rs 10 lakh fine on January 6. "We are expecting that the hearing on the appeal will take place two weeks later," Yadav's advocate Prabhat Kumar said. Yadav is currently serving his sentence in Ranchi's Birsa Munda central jail.

Through his counsels, Yadav also filed a petition to challenge another special CBI court's judgement in a separate fodder scam case. On January 24 Yadav was given a five year jail term in the case (RC 68A /96) pertaining to fraudulent withdrawals to the tune of Rs 37 crore from the Chaibasa treasury. Yadav and 49 other have been convicted in the case. "We expect the hearing in the bail plea related to conviction in Chaibasa treasury to take place next Friday," said Kumar.