Jharkhand HC denies Lalu Prasad Yadav extension of bail, asks him to surrender by Aug 30

The Jharkhand High Court today refused to grant former Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav an extension of bail in relation to the Fodder Scam case in which he was convicted, according to news reports..In March this year, Yadav was sentenced to fourteen years’ imprisonment by a Special Central Burea of Investigation (CBI) Court in Ranchi..Yadav was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for offences committed under provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, and falsification of accounts. He was also sentenced to a further seven years under sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act pertaining to criminal misconduct in the abuse of his public position to make money illegally..The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) President then approached the Jharkhand High Court seeking provisional bail on account of ill health. On May 11 this year, the High Court had granted him provisional bail for a period of six weeks. The same was then extended by another six weeks on the next date of hearing..Then on August 10, another plea was made to extend the bail granted to him. The request was acceded to by the Court, which allowed Yadav to be out on bail till August 20. On the last date of hearing, the bail was further extended to August 27..However, today, Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh refused to extend the bail any longer, directing Yadav to surrender to the authorities by August 30..Yadav has been in custody since December 23, 2017 in connection with his conviction in a related case. This is the fourth case out of six relating to the fraudulent withdrawal of funds from the State exchequer between 1990 and 1995, in which Yadav has been convicted..He was convicted in the first case in September 2013 and sentenced to five years in prison, but was granted bail by the Supreme Court less than three months later. The conviction however led to Yadav’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha..The next two convictions came less than a month apart in December 2017 and January 2018, where he was sentenced to three and a half and five years respectively.