New Delhi, July 15:
The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to interfere with the Jharkhand High Court’s order suspending the sentence of RJD chief and former Bihar Chief Minister, Lalu Prasad Yadav, in the Deoghar fodder scam case. Dismissing the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) plea seeking cancellation of his bail, a Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and P.B. Varale observed that seven years had elapsed since the High Court suspended his sentence and declined to interfere with the order.
At the same time, the apex court requested the Jharkhand High Court to expedite the hearing of the pending criminal appeals, preferably within six months. “We are not inclined to interfere in the impugned order. The appeal is of the year 2018. It will only be appropriate to request the High Court to expedite the hearing of the appeal, preferably within six months,” the Justice Sundresh-led Bench said.
Appearing for the CBI, Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju argued that the Jharkhand High Court had suspended Yadav’s sentence on an erroneous premise that he had completed 50 per cent of his sentence. ASG Raju submitted that Yadav’s earlier applications seeking suspension of sentence had been rejected on merits and contended that the High Court wrongly treated the sentences as concurrent while granting relief.