Following the request made by former Bihar Chief Minister lalu Prasad, Special CBI Court of Shiv Pal Singh on Friday closed the list of witnesses being presented by him in his defense in fodder scam case RC64/96.
Prasad also appeared before Special CBI Courts in two other cases related to fodder scam.
"We filed a petition before the court that we did not want to present any more witnesses in the case, which was allowed by it. The court, however, ordered that if any other accused was interested in producing witnesses in their defense, they could give it in writing till November 10," said lalu's counsel Prabhat Kumar. Otherwise the case will be put on arguments, he added.
RC64A/96 relates to alleged withdrawal of Rs 85 lakh against an allotment of Rs 4.73 lakh using 250 vouchers and 17 fake allotment letters between 1991 and 1994 from Deoghar treasury and is being heard in the court of Special CBI Judge Shivpal Singh.
The production of defense witnesses has also been closed in RC68A/96, related to Chaibasa Treasury from where Rs 37.62 crore was allegedly misappropriated, and has been put on arguments. The case is being heard by the Special CBI court of S.S Prasad. Whereas in RC47A/96 testimony of the witnesses produced by CBI is being done, the CBI in this case has given a list of 990 witnesses out of which, 440 witnesses have recorded their statements before the court. It related to illegal withdrawal of Rs 139 crore from Doranda Treasury.
CBI witnesses are also being examined in another fodder scam case, RC38A/96, involving lalu Prasad, which is likely to be closed by this December.
Remarkably, the Supreme Court, setting aside the Jharkhand High Court order passed in the year 2014 dropping conspiracy charges against him, also directed the trial court to complete proceedings against Prasad and others within nine months.
The fodder scam relates to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 900 crore by the Animal Husbandry Department from various district treasuries in 1990s, when lalu Prasad was the Chief Minister of united Bihar.
Former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra and former state Chief Secretary Sajal Chakraborty are also accused in the case along with Prasad.