Published On : Wed, Apr 10th, 2019

Supreme Court to Hear Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Bail Plea in 3 Cases Today

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court is set to hear RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav‘s bail plea in three cases today, a day after the CBI filed a counter affidavit opposing his bail plea.

The former Bihar chief minister has sought bail on medical grounds, to which the CBI said that bail to him would set “very wrong precedent” in cases involving “serious corruption in high offices”.

The bail plea will come before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

The three cases in which Lalu Prasad Yadav has been convicted are related to the over-Rs 900-crore fodder scam, which pertains to fraudulent withdrawal of money from the treasuries in the Animal Husbandry department in the early 1990s when Jharkhand was part of Bihar.

The RJD was in power in Bihar with Prasad as the chief minister when the scam had allegedly taken place.

Meanwhile, the CBI said, “Simultaneous raising of pleas for bail on medical grounds and bail to guide the party and to carry out all essential responsibilities as a party president in ensuing Lok Sabha election are mutually contradictory and manifests that in the garb of bail on medical ground the petitioner, in essence, wants to pursue his political activities which is impermissible in law.”

In vehement opposition to Yadav’s bail plea, the Central Bureau of Investigation added, “It is respectfully submitted that if these considerations are permitted to be raised by the convicted accused, even a businessman who is found guilty of corruption can seek bail on the ground that he wants to do his business in spite of gravity of the offence and the period for which he is convicted.”