The bench of Jharkhand High Court Justices Rangon Mukhopadhyay and Ambuj Nath accepted the petition. The CBI had filed a criminal appeal to increase the sentence in the case of illegal withdrawal from the Deoghar treasury in the fodder scam. The petition filed by the CBI appealed for an increased sentence for Lalu Prasad, Beck Julius, Subir Bhattacharjee, R.K. Rana, Phoolchand Singh, and Mahesh Prasad. Of these, R.K. Rana, Phoolchand Singh, and Mahesh Prasad are deceased. Therefore, the hearing was held for the remaining three.
CBI’s arguments in court
The CBI argued in court that at the time of the alleged scam, Lalu Prasad was fully aware of the manipulation in the Deoghar treasury. Despite these facts, the lower court sentenced him to three and a half years for this crime. The maximum sentence for such a case is seven years. After hearing the CBI’s arguments, the court accepted the petition to increase the sentences of those convicted.