Against the general impression that he would get bail before Diwali and Chhath vacation the Jharkhand High Court on Friday deferred the hearing in a fodder scam case involving former chief minister and RJD supremo, Lalu Prasad Yadav till November 27. Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh fixed Nov 27 as the next date of hearing after the plea for more time by the CBI counsel for filing the reply.
As the High Court will remain closed for Diwali and Chhath the judge gave three weeks time for hearing the case. A pall of gloom descended on the RJD camp as it was expected that the High Court would give bail by Nov 9. Throughout the election campaign the chief ministerial candidate of Grand Alliance Tejashwi Prasad Yadav would say that Lalu Prasad would get bail on November 9 and Nitish Kumar would be voted out of power on November 10 (9 November ko Lalu ki rehai, 10 November ko Nitish ki vidai).
Incidentally November is the birthday of Tejashwi. RJD spokesman Mritunjay Tiwari, while refusing to comment much on the issue as the matter is related to the Court proceeding, expressed his sadness over the latest development. Lalu’s lawyer Prabhat Kumar held CBI counsel responsible for the delaying tactics. Bihar Congress spokesman Prem Chandra Mishra wondered why it is taking so much time in this case when bails have been granted to Lalu Prasad in all the other fodder scam cases. Mishra criticised the Narendra Modi government for misusing CBI for political purposes.
This case involves the illegal withdrawal of money from Dumka treasury and Lalu Prasad has been convicted for seven years. The NDA camp on the other hand argued that as Lalu had not got bail before November 9, Nitish Kumar is not going to be voted out of power on November 10.
