Charges on Mishra, Lalu in fodder scam
In another tightening of the noose around politicians facing charges in the infamous `950-crore fodder scam, a special CBI court here on Thursday framed charges against RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, former Congress CM Jagannath Mishra and 32 other accused.
Mr Yadav, the main accused in five of the 53 cases of this scam, and Mr Mishra, who preceded Mr Yadav as the Bihar chief minister, appeared in the court of designated CBI judge V.K. Srivastava and denied their involvement in the scam. The present case pertains to allegedly fraudulent withdrawal of `45 lakhs from the treasuries in Banka and Bhagalpur districts between 1995 and 1996, when Mr Yadav was the CM.
Coming out of the courtroom, Mr Yadav chided the media for their continuing interest in the scam, saying journalists were needlessly getting hyper over minor judicial developments like his appearance in court. But Bihar’s ruling NDA leaders used the RJD chief’s increasingly frequent court appearances to heap more ridicule on him.
“Aaplog jo hawa banate hain, prachar karte hain desh, duniya me. Phaltu ka kaam hai. (You people inflate all incidents and spread them all over. This is all useless.), Mr Yadav said. “The buzz you create makes people wonder ‘What happened?’. But this is only a judicial process and I am only attending to it,” he added dismissively.
Both Mr Yadav and Mr Mishra denied their involvement in any of the fodder scam cases and said the CBI had wrongly implicated them in the scam cases. The CBI court had rejected discharge petitions filed by the two leaders and nine other co-accused in this case last year.
CBI lawyer L.R. Ansari said trial in this case was likely to begin in a week.
Of the total 44 accused, against whom the CBI had originally filed a chargesheet on March 31, 2003, six have died, two have turned approver and two are absconding since. The CBI court had taken cognisance of the chargesheet on April 30 that year. Other accused include former RJD minister and ex-MP Vidya Sagar Nishad, sitting JD(U) Lok Sabha member from Jehanabad, Jagdish Sharma and former BJP MLA Dhruv Bhagat.
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