Ranchi, June 22: The Ranchi High Court on Friday extended the provisional bail of former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad till July 3. In March this year, the court had held the 69-year-old RJD chief guilty along with 18 others in connection with the fodder scam case.

Former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra, however, was acquitted in the case along with 12 other accused. Lalu Prasad was sentenced to 14 years in jail and fined Rs 60 lakh by a special CBI court in the fourth fodder scam case pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 3.13 crore from the Dumka treasury in the early 1990s, a CBI counsel said.

For the unversed, Prasad was convicted in the first fodder scam case involving withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore from the Chaibasa treasury in 2013. After being convicted in the second case pertaining to illegal withdrawal of money from the Deogarh treasury, the RJD Supremo has been lodged in the Birsa Munda jail at Ranchi since December 23 last year.

On January 6, a special CBI court had sentenced Prasad to three-and-a-half years in jail and fined him Rs 10 lakh in a fodder scam case relating to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from the Deoghar Treasury 21 years ago.

According to a report by PTI, a fifth case relating to alleged fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 139 crore from the Doranda treasury in Ranchi is pending with the court. To recall, the over Rs 9,00-crore fodder scam cases relate to illegal withdrawal of money from government treasury in different districts in the animal husbandry department in undivided Bihar in 1990s when RJD was in power in the state.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 22, 2018 03:35 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).