Lalu's copter lands on NH, court case filed

Muzaffarpur, Aug 2: A case was filed in a local court today against Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh for ''deliberately'' landing their helicopter on NH 28 yesterday without any prior notice, causing traffic disruption as well as accidents.

Mr Sudhir Kumar Ojha, a lawyer in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), who filed the case, said following the sudden landing of the huge chopper in the middle of the highway at Manayari, he along with several others sustained injuries as they were baffled by the sight of the huge copter above their head while driving on the busy road.

Total chaos and confusion prevailed as several buses and trucks on the road also collided head on and many people jumped into roadside ponds out of fear, Mr Ojha claimed.

Claiming that the copter did not develop any technical snag and required no emergency landing, Mr Ojha alleged it landed deliberately on the highway following instruction from the Railway Minister and his RJD party colleagues who were making an aerial survey of the flood hit north Bihar districts.

Since their ''whimsical behaviour'' had led to several accidents and minor injuries to some people, besides creating largescale confusion among the local authorities and disrupting movement of traffic on the busy highway for several hours, they owed an explanation to the general public as to why they had done so, Mr Ojha demanded.

He said following the filing of the case under section 308 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) the CJM had asked for a detailed report of the incident within a week from the district administration.

Incidentallty, after landing on the highway, the Railway Minister came out of the helicopter and talked to the local people for about an hour regarding the flood situation. He inquired from them about the distribution of relief to the affected people in the area. Later, he and Mr Singh flew back to Patna.

UNI