NEW DELHI, July 31: The Gujral government is expected to apprise the Chief Justice of India Justice JS Verma about the unprecedented situation that developed in Patna yesterday when the High Court "orally" agreed to the CBI's request to seek Army assistance to arrest Laloo Prasad Yadav.For its part, the government today decided, at the highest level, to ask the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials posted in Patna to explain the circumstances under which they rushed to the residence of Justice SJ Mukhopadhyay of the Patna High Court at 5 am yesterday to seek the Army's help.Justice Mukhopahyay and Justice SN Jha are monitoring the fodder scam probe.At a meeting chaired by Prime Minister IK Gujral this evening it was decided that the government would express its ``concern'' to the Chief Justice since it felt that ``proper procedure'' had been bypassed.Today's meeting was also attended by Union Home Minister Indrajit Gupta, Law Minister Ramakant D Khalap, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister NN Vohra, Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramanian, Attorney-General of India Ashok Desai and CBI Director RC Sharma.The Centre has taken a serious note of the CBI's move especially because it had already alerted Army units in Bihar in case of any eventuality. Also, the Home and the Defence ministries were in constant touch with each other and the Bihar government, too, had been kept informed.The Centre's view is that since Laloo had already announced that he would surrender before the trial court and the arrest warrants, issued by the trial court judge, were to be executed by August 6, there was no need to precipitate matters.However, the CBI team adopted a peculiar course. Acting on the instructions of joint director UN Biswas who was in Calcutta, it rushed to Justice Mukhopadhyay's residence without informing the headquarters here. After the judge's verbal go-ahead, the CBI then handed over a written request to the Sub-Area Commander of the Army at Danapur to provide assistance. The Army, however, refused to comply.It was felt at the meeting that the CBI officers (RN Kaul and VS Kaumundi) erred in rushing to Justice Mukhopadhyay. They also took exception to the fact that the Prime Minister, Cabinet Secretary, CBI Director, Home Minister and the Defence Minister were in the dark as to what was happening in Patna and Danapur between 5.00 to 9.00 in the morning. It was only when the Army headquarters informed the Defence Ministry, about the CBI's unusual request, that the Centre was alerted.Sources said the Cabinet Secretary contacted the Patna High Court to seek details about the CBI's request and the language of the oral order of the judge. The court confirmed that an ``oral order'' had been given.Meanwhile, the CBI team in Patna claims - a three-page fax has been sent from Kaumundi to Sharma - that it only ``sought instructions from the court'' in the light of the state government's failure to provide police help. They confirmed that CBI counsel Rakesh Kumar had sought the Army's help.It was felt at the meeting that the proper procedure for the CBI team would have been to wait for instructions from the Centre as the matter was concerned with ``non-cooperation by a state government.'' Secondly, the CBI team should have approached the trial court, which issued the arrest warrant.Army authorities refused to oblige CBIAbiding by the norms laid down in the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Army's Bihar & Orissa Sub-Area refused to be drawn into any controversy over the issue of arresting former Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav. On the morning of July 30, Superintendent of Police, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Patna, approached the B & O Sub-Area Commander for help in securing Laloo's arrest, only to have the rule book thrown at him.As constitutionally specified, the help of the Army can be sought either in the case of a natural calamity or for the dispersal of unlawful assembly. And in the latter case, Section 130 of the Code of Criminal Procedure states, ``If any such assembly cannot be otherwise dispersed, and if it is necessary for the public security that it should be dispersed, the Executive Magistrate of the highest rank who is present may cause it to be dispersed by the armed forces''. It further declares: ``Such Magistrate may require any officer in command of any group of persons belonging to the armed forces to disperse the assembly with the help of the armed forces under his command, and to arrest and confine such persons forming part of it as the Magistrate may direct, or as it may be necessary to arrest and confine in order to disperse the assembly or to have them punished according to law''.
