A special CBI court on Tuesday dismissed the petition filed by former Bihar Chief Minister lalu Prasad and two others convicted in the fodder scam case RC20A/96 seeking relief from the court against the same offences in different cases on the grounds that he had already been convicted earlier.
The court of AK Rai dismissed the petition seeking to quash fodder scam case RC64A/96 pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs96 lakh from Deogarh Treasury in 1990s.
“A petition had been filed by the lalu ji and others in the CBI court under section 300 of CrPC and article 20 (2) of Constitution of India which says that a person once convicted or acquitted cannot be tried for the same offence,” said lalu’s advocate Prabhat Kumar. The petition filed in fodder scam case RC 64A/96 was dismissed on Tuesday by the CBI court, added Kumar.
lalu along with former Rashtriya Janta Dal MP RK Rana and former Janta Dal (U) MP Jagdish Sharma had filed the petition in the CBI court in the month of December 2013. Jagannath Mishra however, has directly moved to High Court seeking relief in other cases,said Kumar.Remarkably, similar petitions were also filed by lalu in connection with RC38A/96 and RC68A/96 which are scheduled to come up on 14 and 15 July respectively.
On September 30 last year, lalu was convicted and sentenced to five years of prison in the fodder scam case RC 20A/96 pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs37.7 crore from Chaibasa Treasury.
Two former Bihar Chief Ministers - lalu Prasad and Jagannath Mishra along with 43 others were convicted by a special CBI court in a fodder scam case RC20A/96 on September 30 which was dragged for around 17 long years to reach the first stage of finality. There were 56 accused persons of which 7 died during the trial and 2 turned approvers while one pleaded guilty.