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(Pi Bureau)
New Delhi: RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav suffered a major setback on Monday as the Supreme Court ruled that the former Bihar CM would stand trial for conspiracy charges in the fodder scam case.
The top court also pulled up the CBI for delay in appealing against the high court order in the case. It said the CBI director should have looked into “this important matter” and deputed an officer to pursue the case.
Speaking to media Persons BJP leader and former Bihar deputy CM Sushil Modi said the Supreme Court has asked for the trial to conclude in the case in nine months. “(Bihar Chief Minister) Nitish Kumar has to take a call now,” he added. Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) is in alliance with the Lalu-led RJD in the state.
Former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav was convicted in the fodder scam case and awarded five-year sentence in October 2013, disbarring him from electoral politics. Lalu is currently out on bail. The Jharkhand High Court had, however, dropped the conspiracy charge against him in one of the cases in 2014, following which the CBI appealed against the move.
Yadav now has to apply for fresh bail as the charges have been revived in the case.
The charges are in connection with the case pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 96 lakh during Lalu’s chief ministerial tenure.
The High Court had dropped IPC 120, 120B, 409, 420, 471, 477, 477A and 13(2) under Prevention of Corruption Act against Prasad, giving him relief under section 300 of the Code of Criminal Procedure Act and Article 22 of the Constitution which states that a person once convicted or acquitted cannot to be tried for the same offence again.
A special CBI court in Ranchi had convicted Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad and 44 others in the case relating to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.70 crore from Chaibasa treasury in 1994-95 in the fodder scam.
