Charges framed against Laloo, for the third time

Other than Laloo, charges were also framed against former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra and 68 others under various IPC sections, including 420 (cheating), 120 B (criminal conspiracy).

Laloo, Mishra and all other accused were present when the sections were read out in the special court of CBI judge Uma Shankar Prasad Sinha.

Laloo, who was Bihar CM when the scam surfaced, also appeared in another CBI court in a separate fodder scam case. Both Laloo and Mishra said they were innocent.

Their lawyers said they would move the Jharkhand High Court against the CBI court’s framing of charges which set in motion trial of the case. Laloo is also accused in four other fodder scam cases.

In New Delhi, as both Houses went into repeated adjournment amidst pandemonium, it was clear that Laloo would be at the centre of an unfolding political battle over the next few days. As BJP led the Opposition onslaught with MPs shouting Barkhast Karo (dismiss him), the UPA government and some of its key allies came out in support of Laloo.

Law Minister H R Bhardwaj said, ‘‘Just because charges have been framed against him, there’s no reason he should be dismissed.’’ He pointed out that ‘‘disqualification is post-conviction’’.

On the other hand, there was the obvious effort to keep alive the Gujarat stone-throwing issue, in which the Railway minister was a victim. Minister of State for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal said that the Centre had sought a report from the Gujarat government on the issue. ‘‘An incident can be big or small but to say nothing has happened is incorrect,’’ he said.

The Left said it was ‘‘ridiculous’’ that the BJP was ‘‘demanding Laloo’s dismissal’’ when several of its leading lights like L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti had persisted with their ministerial jobs despite being legally framed.

The BJP responded to this charge by insisting that a chargesheet in a corruption case was different from the kind of legal accusations their leaders faced.

A meeting of NDA parliamentarians this morning chaired by former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee decided to go all out against Laloo. The BJP and its allies were aware that the RJD camp was prepared with some UPA partners to demand strong action against Narendra Modi.

To them, the fodder scam charges came in handy. Briefing the media, BJP spokesperson V K Malhotra said that with the minister present in court and charges being framed against him, ‘‘we have no option but to demand his resignation.’’

With the NDA gunning for him, Laloo decided to make most of the Gujarat incident. Returning from Ranchi, Laloo rose to make his statement in the Lok Sabha amidst noisy protests from the Opposition benches. He dismissed BJP’s accusations that he was making it all up and insisted that he was attacked by some Bajrang Dal, RSS and VHP activists at a hospital in Vadodara on the day of the Sabarmati Express accident last week.

‘‘I inform with sorrow that when I was going to visit the injured passengers at Sayaji Hospital, some members of Bajrang Dal, RSS and VHP shouted slogan, hurled abuses and attacked my vehicle breaking its windscreen. They even tried to hurt me physically,’’ Laloo said.