RJD chief and former Bihar Chief Minister lalu Prasad on Friday appeared before Special CBI Judge in a fodder scam case in Ranchi and remained in the court for over two hours while one of the witnesses was recording his statements before the court. He was made to appear in the court of Shivpal Singh again within a week, after his petition was rejected by it seeking appearance though his advocate.
“laluji appeared before various courts in four different cases including Special CBI Judge in RC64A/96 related to fraudulent withdrawal of
Rs 95 lakh from Deoghar treasury,” said his advocate Prabhat Kumar. He also appeared in fodder scam case RC38A/96, RC47A/96 and RC 68A/96, he added.
Yadav waited outside in the court for over 2 hours while one of the witnesses layak Singh, part IO in the case, recorded his statement before the court in RC64A/96.
“My client also appeared in RC 68A/96, where statement under section 313 of suppliers was being recorded after which the statements of officials, IAS officers and then politicians will be recorded,” said the advocate.
The RJD chief reached the court sharp at 7:18 am before the Judge Shivpal Singh reached at 7:30 am and came out at 9:20 am following which he went one after the another court thrice.
Notably, the Supreme Court on May 8 had ruled that the RJD leader will stand separate trial in all four fodder scam cases, setting aside the Jharkhand High Court order which had dropped conspiracy charges against him.
The HC had held that all cases against the accused arose out of a single conspiracy and two trials for the same offence will amount to double jeopardy prohibited under Article 20(2) of Constitution and Section 300 of Criminal Procedure Code.
The three Sections 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and section 13 (1) (d) (corruption, abusing his office as public servant) of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Prasad were dropped by the Jharkhand High Court in 2014 but the SC quashed that order in response to a CBI appeal on May 8.
The CBI had challenged the 2014 order of the Jharkhand High Court quashing four pending fodder scam cases against him on the grounds that a person convicted in one case could not be tried in similar cases based on same witnesses and evidences.