Taking strong note of the comments passed by RJD chief lalu Prasad’s son and his ‘heir apparent’ Tejaswi Yadav and others following the former’s conviction in a fodder scam case on December 23, the Special CBI Court of Shivpal Singh on Wednesday issued notices against all of them directing to appear physically before it on January 23.
‘Contempt of Court’ notices were issued against leader of the Opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejaswi Yadav, party’s vice-president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, RJD leader Shivanand Tiwari and Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari for making comments against the December 23 verdict of the fodder scam cases by the court.
They allegedly had said that lalu was convicted because he belonged to a backward caste, while former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra, another accused in the same case, was acquitted as he was a Brahmin.
Meanwhile, the decision over quantum of punishment in the case was deferred till Thursday following the decision of Advocate’s Association not to appear in the court in the second half to condole the death of two senior advocates of Ranchi Civil Court.
“Decision over quantum of punishment for lalu Ji and others will be taken tomorrow at 2 pm. As per the direction of the court, matter of each of the convicted persons will be taken up one by one in alphabetical order,” said Prasad’s counsel Prabhat Kumar. The court said that arguments over quantum of punishment by a maximum of 4 convicts will be heard in a day, he added.
He said that Prasad has been found guilty under sections 120 (B) and 420 of Indian Penal Code along with sections 13(2) read with 13 (1) (D) (C) of Prevention of Corruption Act for which there is a provision of punishment for a minimum 1 year to maximum 7 years. The Court also directed the CBI to issue show cause notices against the then Deoghar Deputy Commissioner Sukhdev Singh, the then DG Vigilance DP Ojha, suppliers Shailendra Prasad and Shiv Kumar Patwari, asking them why criminal proceedings should not be initiated against them in the case.
Meanwhile, Prasad was seen sitting silently on the back bench in the court room surrounded by over a dozen of RJD leaders.
He was simply observing people inside the court room and was explained by his lawyer why decision over quantum of punishment was deferred till Thursday.
later, when asked by the court, anybody had to say anything on the point of their conviction, Prasad pleaded that he was in poor health and hence a lenient view may be taken against him.Earlier, hundreds of party workers also thronged on Birsa Munda Central Jail on Wednesday to show solidarity towards Prasad and shouted slogans in his favour when he was being taken to the court from the jail in a white Tata Sumo vehicle. Special CBI Court on December 23 had convicted Prasad along with 15 others in a RC 64A/96 and fixed January 3 to decide on quantum of punishment for them.
Sixty-nine-year-old lalu and other convicts were taken into custody immediately after the pronouncement of the verdict.This case pertains to alleged fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from Deoghar Treasury between 1991 and 1994.