NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to interfere with the Jharkhand High Court's decision granting bail to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in the Deoghar treasury fodder scam case, rejecting the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) challenge to the 2019 order.

While declining to cancel Yadav's bail, the apex court directed the Jharkhand High Court to expedite the hearing of the pending criminal appeals and dispose of them, preferably within six months.A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and P B Varale said, "We are not inclined to interfere with the impugned order...", effectively allowing the high court's order suspending Yadav's sentence to continue.The court, however, noted that the appeals arising from the conviction have remained pending for several years and asked the Jharkhand High Court to conclude the proceedings at the earliest.The CBI had challenged the July 2019 order of the Jharkhand High Court, contending that it had "erroneously" suspended the sentence awarded by the trial court and granted bail to the former Bihar chief minister in one of the multi-crore fodder scam cases. The agency argued that the gravity of the offence warranted interference by the Supreme Court.The case pertains to the alleged fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from the Deoghar treasury in the early 1990s through fake allotment letters, forged bills and fabricated supply records in the animal husbandry department.

The special CBI court had convicted Yadav and sentenced him to three-and-a-half years' imprisonment after holding him guilty of criminal conspiracy and corruption.The Jharkhand High Court granted him bail after observing that he had already served more than half of the sentence imposed by the trial court, a key consideration under the law for suspension of sentence during the pendency of an appeal.Tuesday's order means Yadav will continue to remain on bail while his appeal against conviction is heard by the high court.The fodder scam involved the alleged embezzlement of nearly Rs 950 crore from the undivided Bihar government's animal husbandry department over several years through fictitious purchases of cattle feed, medicines and livestock equipment. After the bifurcation of Bihar in 2000, the cases came under the jurisdiction of courts in Jharkhand because the treasuries concerned fell within the new state.Yadav has faced trial in multiple fodder scam cases linked to different treasuries, including Chaibasa, Dumka and Deoghar.

He has been convicted in several of these cases by special CBI courts over the past decade.In April 2021, the Supreme Court granted Yadav bail in the Doranda treasury case after he had spent more than three years in custody and had completed over half of the sentence awarded in that case. With bail secured in all the fodder scam cases in which he was convicted, the RJD supremo was released from prison, although his convictions continue to be under challenge before the Jharkhand High Court.