Lalu and Rabri acquitted in DA case

Patna, Dec 18 (UNI) A special CBI court today acquitted Railway Minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his wife and former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi in the Disproportionate Asset (DA) case, an offshoot of the multi-crore rupee fodder scam, observing that the prosecution had failed to prove its charges.

The court said the judgement was mainly based on the findings of Income Tax Apellate Tribunal (ITAT) and the tax returns of the VIP couple were accepted by ITAT.

In his voluminous judgment running into over 150 pages, special judge Munilal Paswan said the prosecution had failed to prove its allegations in the DA case.

The couple were present in the jam packed court room when the judgement was being pronounced.

Mr Prasad and Ms Rabri Devi had been charged with amassing property to the tune of Rs 46,26,826 and 87 paise beyond known sources of their income.

The court had completed the hearing in the case and had reserved the judgement which was delivered at around 1100 hrs.

Mr Prasad and Mr Rabri Devi, along with their supporters arrived in the court at around 1030 hrs amid tight security.

The counsel for Mr Prasad, Rana Pratap Singh said he was pleased with the verdict.

CBI Counsel L R Ansari said any decision would be taken after getting the copy of the judgement.

Only operative part of the judgement had been delivered in the court he said adding that CBI would decide its future move after getting through the details of the judgement and the ground on which the VIP couple was acquitted.

Happy with the favourable judgement in the Disproportionate Asset (DA) case, Mr Prasad said the judiciary was ''great'' and like ''God'' in which he always had faith.

Ms Rabri Devi who is also leader of the opposition in the state assembly said ''we have got the verdict and the case is now over.'' She said for the past seven-eight both she and her husband were facing charges of amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income.

The case was registered following order of the monitoring bench of Patna High Court against Mr Prasad and Ms Devi on August 19, 1998.

The CBI investigating into the case filed the chargesheet on March 10, 2000 in the DA case after investigation for two years.

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