Former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, the main accused in the 17-year-old fodder scandal case, got partial relief on Tuesday as the Supreme Court restricted the trial court from delivering its verdict on the matter next week.
11-years-after trial in the case began, the RJD chief and other accused approached the court seeking that the trial be shifted to another lower court on the ground that special CBI judge P.K. Singh, who recently reserved the verdict, is a relative of a minister in the present Bihar government whose head Nitish Kumar is his “biggest political enemy”.
Agreeing to examine the apprehension raised by Mr Yadav, the apex court sought response of the CBI and the government of Jharkhand, where the trial was conducted, withing the next two weeks. A bench of justices P. Sathasivam and J. Chelameswar set July 23 as the next date of hearing.
On July 1, the Jharkhand high court had dismissed Mr Yadav’s plea to transfer the case to another special CBI court. The high court had held that no evidence was placed before it to prove that the judge conducting the trial has any association with the state’s education minister P.K. Shahi except that they are “distantly” related.
Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, appearing for the RJD supremo, said that there is apprehension of bias as the judge is related to a minister in the government of Nitish Kumar, “who is his (Yadav’s) biggest political enemy”. The bench, after a brief hearing, granted an interim stay on the pronouncement of verdict by the trial court which was to be delivered on July 15.
In the petition, Mr Yadav has alleged that the younger sister of the presiding judge has been married to a cousin of P.K. Shahi who is at present a minister in Nitish Kumar government.
The case pertains to alleged fraudulent withdrawal of `37.7 crore from Chaibasa Treasury in the 1990s.
The FIR was lodged by Bihar government in February 1996 but the case was later on transferred to the CBI after a month.