The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to former Bihar Chief Minister lalu Prasad Yadav in the fodder scam where the CBI has sought revival of an FIR against lalu that got quashed by the Jharkhand High Court.
The Court tagged the CBI’s petition with similar petitions filed against other accused listed for September 1. Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, who appeared for the investigating agency argued that the HC order was wrong as it assumed the two FIRs pending against lalu to be same. CBI claimed that the two FIRs related to withdrawal from different treasuries at different points of time and hence will not attract the bar placed by Article 20(2) to prevent double jeopardy to an accused.
The Bench of Justice Madan B lokur and SA Bobde issued notice to lalu and sought his response by the next date. A special CBI court in Ranchi had convicted Prasad and 44 others in September last year in the case relating to fraudulent withdrawal of `37.70 crore from Chaibasa treasury in 1994-95. He was later granted bail by the Supreme Court last December.
According to the CBI, the Chaibasa treasury withdrawal was for the period of April 1, 1994 to January 31, 2005 while the other FIR related to withdrawal from Deoghar Treasury for period from 1990-94.