HC reserves judgement on Lalu petition

, Sep 19: The Jharkhand High Court today reserved its verdict on former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad's petition pleading to quash a fodder scam case on the ground that he had been already convicted in a related case earlier.

The bench of Justice R R Prasad reserved the judgement after Prasad's counsel concluded the arguments in connection with the Rs 950 crore scam. On September 30 last year, Prasad had been convicted in the RC20A/96 fodder scam case pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore from Chaibasa Treasury in 1994/95 fiscal along with another Bihar ex-CM Jagannath Mishra.

The conviction led Prasad to move the high court seeking quashing of RC 64A/96 fodder scam case under section 300 of the Code of Criminal Procedure Act and Article 22 of the Constitution that states that a person once convicted or acquitted not to be tried for the same offence again.

The RJD chief also referred to the high court's judgement on a similar petition of Mishra, quashing Mishra's remaining fodder cases as he was convicted along with Prasad in RC 20A/96 case. Prasad had approached the high court after a special CBI court rejected his separate petitions seeking quashing of cases - 64A/96, 38/A/96 and 68A/96 fodder scam cases. The RC 64A/96 pertained to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 84.53 lakh from Deoghar Treasury in 1992/93 fiscal.

PTI