No relief for jailed Lalu Prasad Yadav as Jharkhand HC rejects his bail plea, seeks medical records from hospitals
By Anand ST Das | Express News Service | Published: 20th April 2018 08:34 PM |
Last Updated: 20th April 2018 08:34 PM | A+A A- |
RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav (File | PTI)
PATNA: Jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav will have to wait longer for bail as Jharkhand High Court on Friday rejected his petition for interim bail and sought his medical reports from hospitals in Ranchi and New Delhi. Hearing on the petition will be conducted on May 4.
The HC decision came as a shock for the family of the 69-year-old former Bihar chief minister, who has been convicted in four cases of the Rs 1,000-crore fodder scam. Yadav was imprisoned on December 23 last and shifted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi on March 28 for treatment of diabetes, hypertension and cardiac ailments.
Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh sought Yadav’s medical records from both Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), where he was initially admitted, and AIIMS. Yadav’s lawyer, Prabhat Kumar, said the court also asked CBI to file a counter affidavit on the matter.
This is the second time the HC has rejected Yadav’s bail plea. On February 23, while rejecting his bail petition, Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh had observed that bail could have been considered had Yadav spent at least half of the prison terms he has been awarded. The judge also said the Rs 1,000-crore fodder scam in united Bihar in the mid-1990s seemed to have been perpetrated in his knowledge.
With the wedding of Yadav’s elder son and former Bihar health minister Tej Pratap Yadav slated for May 12, his family is eagerly waiting to have him home with them. Tej Pratap, who turned 29 on April 16, was engaged with Aishwarya Rai, the daughter of former Bihar chief minister Daroga Prasad Rai, on April 18.
Special CBI courts in Ranchi have earlier handed Lalu jail terms for 27 years and a half after finding him guilty in four cases of the 22-year-old fodder scam. He was handed a five-year jail term in the Chaibasa treasury case in September 2013; a jail term for three years and a half in the Deoghar treasury case in December 2017; a jail term for five years in another case linked to the Chaibasa treasury in January last, and a jail term for fourteen years in the Dumka treasury case on March 24.
