On Friday, the Jharkhand High Court adjourned the hearing on RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s bail statement in relation to one of the forage scam cases until December 11.
The former prime minister of Bihar has been languishing in jail since December 23, 2017, following his conviction in three fodder scam cases in quick succession.
Prasad has already obtained bail in two cases. He moved the request for bail in the third and final case on the basis that he had completed half (42 months and 28 days) of the seven-year sentence that was awarded to him in the case.
But, the CBI, in its response, said that Prasad in this case had only served 34 months and a few days in custody, which is still about eight months below the half-sentence mark.
To clear up the ambiguity, Prasad’s lead attorney, Kapil Sibal, requested a two-week deadline to provide a detailed estimate of his client’s period in custody.
The Aparesh Kumar Singh court of law published the matter for a further hearing on December 11.
The case relates to the fraudulent withdrawal of 3.76 million rupees from Dumka’s treasury between December 1995 and January 1996.
A special court of the IWC, in 2018, sentenced Prasad to 14 years in prison, seven under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and another seven under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PC), in that case .
He had expressly said that both sentences would be executed consecutively.
However, Prasad’s lawyers hope that the higher court will overturn this decision and allow the two sentences to run at the same time. If that happens, Prasad has to spend seven years in prison in this case.
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The RJD leader, who has been in custodial treatment at Ranchi’s Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) for more than two years, stated that he had served half of the seven-year sentence he was awarded in this case.
He argued that in two previous cases he was granted bail after serving half of the sentences.
Prasad’s lawyer in Ranchi, Prabhat Kumar, said: “According to our calculations, Prasad has served 42 months and 28 days in prison. This is more than half the seven-year sentence. “
Prasad had suffered a major shock in the forage scam case on September 30, 2013, when a trial court in Ranchi found him guilty in the first of six cases against him. The sentence earned him five years in prison, the disqualification of Parliament and a ban from participating in the elections. The Supreme Court released him on bail in December of that year.
His troubles were renewed in 2017-18 when he was found guilty and sentenced to different prison terms in three separate forage scam cases in quick succession. He is still facing trial in two cases.
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