Lalu playing badminton after getting bail: CBI

New Delhi:The CBI on Friday told the Supreme Court that RJD supremo Lalu Prasad was playing badminton after being enlarged on bail in a fodder scam case on medical grounds, as it sought cancellation of the relief granted to the former Bihar chief minister. Prasad’s counsel opposed any move to cancel septuagenarian leader’s bail, saying he has undergone a kidney transplant recently.

The CBI has approached the seeking cancellation of Prasad’s bail in the Doranda treasury case in which he has been sentenced to five years in prison. Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the CBI, submitted that the Jharkhand High court order granting bail to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader was “bad in law” and “erroneous”.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Prasad, opposed the CBI’s application on account of the former Union Minister having a kidney transplant surgery. Sibal told the bench that Prasad has already served 42 months behind bars in the case. “He is playing badminton. He has been granted bail after conviction in the case. I will demonstrate that the high court order is bad in toto. There’s a short question of law. The bail has been granted on erroneous assumption that he has spent more than 3.5 years considering that sentences are concurrent and not consecutive,” Raju told the court. Prasad has so far been sentenced in five cases of the Rs 950 crore fodder scam, which took place between 1992 and 1995 when he was the Bihar chief minister and held the finance and animal husbandry portfolios.