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Laloo gets bail in fodder scam

After a gap of more than two months, former Bihar chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav became a free man on Thursday -- at least, for the next three months.

In the morning, the Supreme Court granted him and five others interim bail in the Rs 9.5 billion fodder scandal. Their cases, a three-judge bench comprising Justices G P Nanavati, S P Kurdukar, and K P Thomas ruled, will be taken up after three months.

Yadav, who has been in judicial custody since October 28, said the fodder scandal was sired by some "vested interests" to tarnish his political image, but he would "emerge above board" soon.

He had "full confidence" in the judiciary, he continued, and was ready to accept all the conditions the apex court had laid down for his release.

The bench had said the accused would have to furnish sureties and bonds to the satisfaction of the special court at Patna, which is trying the fodder cases, before their release. It also directed that Yadav should not intimidate witnesses in the case directly or indirectly, and should appear before the special judge as and when required.

Besides, it asked the state government to provide all support and protection to the witnesses and the officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation connected with the prosecution of the case.

The five others are former Bihar ministers Chandradev Prasad Verma and Vidyasagar Nishad, legislator R K Rana, former animal husbandry director Ram Raj Ram, and state budgeting officer Braj Bhushan Pasad.

UNI

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