The Special CBI court of Shivpal Singh on Friday allowed the petition filed by RJD chief lalu Prasad under Section 319 of CrPC seeking inclusion of then Accountant General (AG) Bihar PK Mukhopadhyay and two others as accused persons in fodder scam case RC68A/96 for not mentioning the fraudulent withdrawal in the CAG report during the period 1990-96 despite having all knowledge about it.
The other two officials against whom the RJD chief wanted summons to be issued by the court are Deputy Accountant General BN Jha and Senior Director General in Accountant General’s Office Pramod Kumar.
“After perusal of records, the court found a prima facie case and the petition filed on behalf of accused lalu Prasad dated March 14, 2018 is hereby allowed in the ends of justice and petitioner is directed to seek sanction of prosecution against wanted accused persons from competent authority and filed in the court within a month,” stated the court order. It further stated that on perusal of record the court found great negligence on the part of AG that never warned the Government relating to the fodder scam as happened since many years in continuous way.
The court will now pronounce final judgment in this case on Saturday related to alleged withdrawal of Rs 3.76 crore against actual allotment of Rs 1.5 lakh with the help of 96 fake vouchers from Dumka Treasury in 1995-96. The CBI Court was to deliver final judgment in the case on Thursday itself, but was deferred till Friday, after the RJD chief pleaded before it to dispose of his petition ahead of the final judgment in the case.
“After its verdict on lalu’s petition in the first half, the Court in the second half asked the advocates present there that whether any other petition was pending with the court. After our denial, the court said that the final judgment will be delivered on Saturday in the presence of all accused persons in the case,” said lalu’s Advocate Prabhat Kumar. Though, time of judgment has not been disclosed, but probably it will be pronounced in the second half, he added.
The RJD chief, in his petition, has also accused the CBI of concealing the facts during its investigation and before the CBI court as well. The petition was filed by lalu on Monday while the CBI filed its rejoinder on Thursday following which the court had fixed a date for Saturday for decision after hearing arguments from both the sides
lalu is presently lodged in Birsa Munda Central Jail after a special CBI court of Shiv Pal Singh on January 6, pronounced 3.5 years’ jail and also slapped a fine of Rs 10 lakh for him in fodder scam case RC64A/96, related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89, 4417 lakh from Deoghar Treasury with the help of 6 fake allotment letters during 1991 to 1994.
A total of six cases were lodged against lalu Prasad out of which he has already been convicted in three cases.