Lalu Prasad Yadav acquitted in 2015 poll code violation case

Hajipur, Aug 24: A court in Bihar's Hajipur on Wednesday acquitted RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav in a 2015 case pertaining to the former chief minister allegedly making caste-based remarks and violating the Model Code of Conduct during assembly elections.

The court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Hajipur), Smita Raj, acquitted Yadav of all charges due to lack of substantive evidence. "When the court pronounced its verdict, my client was present inside the courtroom. He remained inside the courtroom for 10 minutes," Shyam Babu, lawyer of the RJD chief, told reporters.

"Previously, when my client's statement was recorded before the court on June 16, he had denied the charges levelled against him in the FIR pertaining to the case. Yadav had pleaded innocence before the court on that date and said that he did not use any word that would hurt anyone," the lawyer said.

The case pertains to Yadav's election campaign during the 2015 assembly polls in the state. Launching the party's campaign from Raghopur on September 27, 2015, the RJD supremo had allegedly described the assembly elections as a direct fight between the "backward castes and forward castes" and gave a call to Yadavs and other backward castes to rally behind the RJD-led alliance to defeat the BJP-led NDA.

Later, an FIR was registered with the Ganga Bridge Police Station on the basis of the statement of the then circle officer, who was deputed as the magistrate during the election meeting of the RJD chief for his son and party nominee Tejashwi Yadav in Raghopur.