Jharkhand HC grants bail to RJD Supremo Lalu Prasad in Doranda treasury case
Ranchi(PTI): Jharkhand High Court on Friday granted bail to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad in the Doranda Treasury Case in which a CBI special court had sentenced him to five years in prison.
73-year-old Prasad is in custody following his conviction and sentencing by a CBI court in February in a fodder scam case involving embezzlement of over Rs 139 crore from Doranda treasury.
"The Jharkhand High court has accepted our petition for suspension of the sentence and has granted bail. We had pleaded that he has served half of his five-year sentence in this case. Prasad has already served 41 months in jail ...We had submitted the trial court's certified copy. The court has granted bail," said Prabhat Kumar, counsel of Lalu Prasad told PTI.
The HC order is expected to be communicated to the lower court by Tuesday and we will submit the bail bond and obtain release order, Kumar said.
Jharkhand High Court on April 8 had deferred the hearing into a petition filed by the incarcerated leader challenging his conviction in a fodder scam case.
The former Bihar Chief Minister was sentenced to five years in prison and slapped a fine of Rs 60 lakh by a special CBI court in Ranchi in connection with the fifth fodder scam case involving embezzlement of over Rs 139 crore by Doranda treasury.
Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh was on April 8 informed by CBI, which is investigating the scam that the earlier order of the court to file a counter affidavit in the matter could not be complied with by the agency and pleaded for more time.
Prasad's counsel Kapil Sibbal had told the court that his client has already served more than half of the sentence of five years in prison in the case and deserves to be released from custody.
Prasad was convicted by the CBI Court here on February 15.
On February 21 he was sentenced to five years imprisonment and fined Rs 60 lakh in the fodder scam case.
Prasad had held the finance portfolio of undivided Bihar, of which he was the chief minister, during the period of the scam. He had allegedly received kickbacks through the animal husbandary department.
Fake challans and bills were raised which were cleared by the finance department and money was released through the treasury.
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Two arrested in K'taka for assaulting minors, uploading CSAM content
Bengaluru (PTI): Two men were arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor girls, recording the acts on mobile phones and uploading the videos online as child sexual abuse material, police said on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Kiran Kumar (29), hailing from Chitradurga district, and Aditya M K (20), hailing from Shivamogga district, they said.
A probe was initiated after information was received from the NCRP portal regarding a suspected instance of creation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) for online dissemination, police said.
Accordingly, a case was registered at Kaggalipura Police Station under relevant sections of the IT Act on May 10, they added.
Investigation revealed that two minor girl victims were exploited and videos were created and uploaded to the internet. The child victims have subsequently recorded their statements as per procedure and further necessary legal steps have been taken, Pronab Mohanty Director General of Police, Cyber Command, said in a statement.
Based on the statements of the victims, the accused persons, who allegedly assaulted the minors, recorded the acts on mobile phones and uploaded the videos online, were arrested, he said.
Following the probe, sections 65(2) (rape) and 70 (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with relevant sections of the POCSO Act, have been added to the FIR, police said.
Officials collected relevant information and on May 12, arrested the accused persons and seized three mobile phones belonging to them, in which the videos had allegedly been recorded, he said.
The accused were later produced before the court and taken into police custody for further investigation, he added.
According to him, in CSAM cases, police usually apprehend offenders who have downloaded such content or have kept them in their possession after obtaining them from elsewhere, usually the internet.
"The present case is one of the very few instances where content creators and uploaders have been apprehended," Mohanty added.
