NEW DELHI (TIP): In a huge respite to Lalu Prasad Yadav, the Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief in connection with the fodder scam case. December 13 was fixed as the date for hearing the bail plea of the former Bihar chief minister by a twojudge bench of the apex court. The apex court bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi had issued notice to the CBI after senior counsel Ram Jethmalani told the court that 44 people were convicted in the case, of whom 37 have already been granted bail and bail applications of six others are under consideration. Lalu’s lawyer also said that the RJD chief had already spent enough time in jail and was not in a position to influence the investigation as the probe was already over.

Lalu, moved the apex court challenging the order of the Jharkhand high court which had dismissed his bail plea. Lalu, another former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra and 43 others were on September 30, convicted by a special CBI court in the fodder scam case involving fraudulent withdrawal of 37.7 crore rupees from Chaibasa Treasury during the RJD regime. He has been disqualified from the Lok Sabha after being convicted in the case and banned from contesting elections for six years. The fodder scam involved the siphoning of funds from the Bihar government treasury. The alleged theft spanned over several years, and many Bihar state government administrative and elected officials across multiple administrations were allegedly engaged in it. The fodder scam was unearthed in Bihar in 1996 when Lalu was chief minister.