Former Bihar Chief Minister lalu Prasad along Jagannath Mishra appeared before a Special CBI court on Friday in a fodder scam case RC 64A/96 after being summoned in May this year as the Supreme Court rejected his plea that he could not be prosecuted twice for the same offence and revived criminal conspiracy charges against him.
Prasad, along with Mishra and former Chief Secretary Sajal Chakravarty were issued summons in connection with a case related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 95 lakh from Deoghar treasury.
As soon as he entered the court, Prasad was asked to sign on the attendance sheet after being inquired by the Judge whether he was aware of the SC’s order. Prasad appeared in person before the court of Special CBI judge Shivpal Singh early in the morning at around 7 am.
“The court asked my client whether he was aware of the conditions of Supreme Court order and was told that he will be prosecuted again for the three charges which were dropped earlier by the High Court,” said his advocate Prabhat Kumar. Prasad nodded in affirmative to the judge’s question, added the advocate.
“I also asked permission of the court to produce some defense witnesses for examination and said that the list will be furnished in the next date, which was granted by the court,” said the advocate.
The Jharkhand High Court had quashed the charge sheet filed against Prasad in this case where 250 vouchers and 17 fake allotment letters were prepared during the period 1991 to 1994 for withdrawing the said amount illegally. There are 38 accused persons, including Prasad. CBI had filed an appeal petition in the Supreme Court against the HC judgement.
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.
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 restored by the Court, he added. Prasad also appeared before another CBI court of Pradip Kumar to register attendance in another fodder scam case 47A/96 of withdrawal of Rs 139 crore from Doranda treasury, said his advocate.