Supreme Court upholds Lalu Yadav’s bail in Deoghar fodder scam case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the Central Bureau of Investigation’s appeal against the Jharkhand High Court’s 2019 order granting bail to former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in the Deoghar fodder scam case, reported Bar and Bench.

The case pertains to the alleged embezzlement of Rs 89 lakh from the Deoghar treasury between 1991 and 1994, when Yadav was the chief minister of Bihar. He was convicted in the case in 2017.

In 2019, the High Court granted Yadav bail and suspended his sentence. The CBI challenged the order in the Supreme Court, which issued notice in the matter in February 2020. The case has been pending since then.

On Tuesday, the CBI argued before the Supreme Court that the High Court had granted suspension of sentence on an erroneous premise that Yadav had completed half his sentence, Live Law reported.

It contended that Yadav was convicted in multiple fodder scam cases arising out of separate trials. The agency argued that, unless directed otherwise by a court, sentences awarded in subsequent convictions begin only after the earlier sentence has been served.

The High Court incorrectly treated the sentences as concurrent while calculating the period of imprisonment undergone, the CBI submitted before the Supreme Court.

“The very yardstick applied is wrong,” Live Law quoted the CBI’s counsel...

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