The Jharkhand High Court has deferred for November 27 the hearing of bail plea of former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav in Dumka treasury case.
Earlier, the hearing was scheduled to be held on November 9, a day before the counting of votes in Bihar assembly elections.
This was the second case linked to the fodder scam in which Lalu's bail appeal is pending. He was granted bail in the Chaibasa Treasury case in October but continued to stay in jail due to his conviction in another case.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, the party's CM candidate in Bihar, had said last month that his father will come out of jail on November 9 after securing bail in a fodder scam case, and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will have his farewell the next day.
The votes for the state assembly polls will be counted on November 10. The last phase of voting is to be held on Saturday, November 7.
Lalu Prasad, who was convicted in four fodder scam cases, has been staying in the paying ward of the Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS) instead of the Birsa Munda central jail for health and treatment reasons.
The RJD supremo has been in RIMS for more than two years now.
He was earlier shifted to the residence of the RIMS director to prevent exposure to the COVID-19 virus.
Lalu has been in prison since December 2017 after he was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment in 2018 following the convicunder the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and seven years under the Prevention of Corruption Act in connection with the fodder scam case.
Both the sentences are being served consecutively.
The case pertains to the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 3.5 crore from the Dumka treasury by Animal Husbandry Department officials between 1991 and 1996 when Yadav served as Bihar's Chief Minister.
