Supreme Court Declines to Cancel Lalu Prasad’s Bail in Fodder Scam Case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to intervene in a Jharkhand High Court order granting bail to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in the Deoghar treasury fodder scam case. The bench, comprising Justices M. M. Sundresh and P. B. Varale, directed the high court to decide on Yadav's appeal against his conviction within six months.

“Upon hearing the learned counsels, we are not inclined to interfere with the order particularly since seven years have elapsed since then. The appeals are of the year 2018, and it will only be appropriate to request the high court to expedite the hearing,” the bench observed while hearing the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) appeal challenging the high court’s decision.

The case involves the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from the Deoghar district treasury between 1990 and 1994, during Yadav’s tenure as chief minister of Bihar. He was convicted under the Prevention of Corruption Act and sentenced in 2017. On July 12, 2019, the Jharkhand High Court granted him bail, noting that he had served half of his prison term.

Additional Solicitor General S. V. Raju, representing the CBI, argued that Yadav had been convicted in multiple fodder scam cases, and therefore Section 427 of the Criminal Procedure Code should apply. He contended that the high court had erroneously treated the sentences as running concurrently. “The very yardstick applied is wrong,” Raju said, adding that ordinarily, a sentence for a subsequent conviction should begin only after the earlier sentence expires. He also noted that two earlier applications for suspension of sentence had been rejected.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Yadav, countered that the question of whether sentences would run concurrently would arise only at the final stage. He argued that the high court had applied a uniform yardstick. When the bench inquired about the status of the appeals, Raju claimed that Yadav had delayed the trial.

This case is part of the larger fodder scam that occurred during Yadav’s tenure as chief minister of undivided Bihar. He has been convicted in cases related to fraudulent withdrawals from the Deoghar, Dumka, and Chaibasa treasuries, which are now in Jharkhand. The Jharkhand High Court granted him bail in the Deoghar treasury matter in 2019, in the Chaibasa treasury matter in October 2020, and in the Dumka treasury case in April 2021.