The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to reply to a plea by Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav for bail in three cases related to the multi-crore fodder scam.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi issued a notice to the investigative agency and posted the case after two weeks.
The petition in the apex court challenges the January 10 verdict of the Jharkhand High Court, rejecting bail to him in these cases. Mr. Yadav is lodged in Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi, Jharkhand.
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The fodder scam related to fraudulent withdrawal of government funds from the treasuries of various districts of undivided Bihar in the 1990s when RJD was in power and Yadav was the Chief Minister.
Mr. Yadav was lodged in Ranchi jail in December 2017 in these cases. In the High Court, the RJD supremo had cited old age and poor health for grant of bail.
Yadav, 71, said he was suffering from diabetes, blood pressure and other ailments, and that he had already obtained bail in one of the fodder scam cases. He has been convicted for fraudulent withdrawal of money from Deoghar, Dumka and two Chaibasa treasuries.
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He got bail in one of the two Chaibasa-treasury related cases. He is currently facing a fifth case pertaining to Doranda treasury.
The RJD chief has been undergoing treatment at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Ranchi.
The over ₹900 crore fodder scam related to fraudulent withdrawal of money from treasuries in the Animal Husbandry department in early 90s when Bihar and Jharkhand were one State.