A petition has been filed at the Jharkhand High Court on behalf of former Chief Minister of Bihar lalu Prasad Yadav seeking transfer of fodder scam case number RC20A/96 to any other court in the State. The petition has been filed in the wake of special CBI judge Pravas Kumar Singh being closely related to the petitioners counsel PK Shahi. The judgement in the case is to be delivered on July 15 at the special CBI court of PK Singh in Ranchi.
“We have apprehension that we cannot get justice through this court hence, a petition has been filed at the Jharkhand High Court seeking transfer of case number RC20A/96 to any other court in the state,” said advocate of laloo Yadav Prabhat Kumar.
“As the petitioner’s counsel and JD(U) leader PK Shahi happens to be the first cousin of the CBI judge Prawas Kumar Singh’s wife, one cannot expect justice from this court,” he added.
The lineage chart and voter list related to relation of Shahi and Singh has been submitted with the transfer petition as evidence.
Kumar also alleged that the CBI judge has deliberately fixed the date of July 15 for the judgment in a haste, despite the fact that defense cannot be placed in such a short period of time where as many as 350 witnesses have been examined by the CBI.
According to a CBI court’s order of June 20, July 15 has been fixed for the date of Judgment on which all the accused persons are directed to be physically present in the court. The defense can submit their arguments in written before July 01.
“We were forced to file the petition in the High Court, as the date for judgment has been fixed in haste without giving us adequate time to prepare for defense, which has also been fixed on July 01,” Kumar said.
The date of hearing at the Jharkhand High Court has been fixed to July 28.
The directed 44 fodder scam accused, including former Bihar chief ministers lalu Prasad Yadav and Jagannath Mishra, are to be pronounced judgement on July 15 in the fodder scam case number RC20A/96 pertaining to alleged fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore from Chaibasa Treasury in the 1990s.