Fodder scam case: Laloo, Mishra to surrender today

PATNA, Oct 27: Former Bihar Chief Ministers Laloo Prasad Yadav and Jagannath Mishra and former ministers Bholaram Toofani and Vidya Sagar...

PATNA, Oct 27: Former Bihar Chief Ministers Laloo Prasad Yadav and Jagannath Mishra and former ministers Bholaram Toofani and Vidya Sagar Nishad (both RJD MLAs) would surrender before designated CBI Judge S K Lal tomorrow in connection with a conspiracy angle case of the fodder scam.

Former Union minister C P Verma, suspended BJP MLA Drhuva Bhagat and RJD MLA R K Rana were also expected to surrender before the court in the instant case (RC 64(A)/96) relating to fraudulent withdrawals of over Rs 97 lakh from Deoghar treasury by State Animal Husbandry officials through “forged and fake bills”.

The Supreme Court had on September 25, after rejecting the prayer of RJD president Yadav and Bihar Jan Congress’ chief Patron Mishra, had asked them to surrender and apply for regular bail in the trial court on October 28.

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Yadav and Mishra had moved the apex court against the July 24 judgement of the Patna High Court upholding the trial court’s order asking the accused to surrender after taking cognizance of a CBIchargesheet in the case on July 2.

Reposing faith in the judiciary, the former chief ministers had said that they would abide by the directive of the Supreme Court.

CBI judge Lal had taken cognizance of the chargesheet against 29 accused, including the politicians, in the case.

The cognizance was taken under Section 120(b), 418, 420, 467 468, 477(a), 409, 201 and 511 of the Indian Penal Code and also under Section 13(b) read with Section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

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Of the five regular cases, including the one relating to disproportionate assets, instituted against RJD chief, the CBI had already submitted chargesheets in two and investigation was in progress in three others.

Yadav had surrendered in the trial court on July 30 last year after the apex court turned down his plea for anticipatory bail following a chargesheet filed by the agency in regular case no RC 20(A)/96 relating to withdrawal of more than Rs 37 crore from the Chaibasa treasury by AHD officials.

He had latersecured regular bail after over three months of judicial remand in the case.

Among the other three cases, Yadav had secured regular bail in RC 38(A)/96 and RC 42(A)/96, following the CBI’s failure to file chargesheets within a mandatory period of three months of judicial remand of the accused, while the agency had subjected Yadav to a gruelling six-hour questioning in disproportionate assets case no RC 5(A)/98.

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The assets case relates to alleged accumulation of huge wealth by Yadav disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Meanwhile, Jagannath Mishra criticised the CBI for “falsely implicating” him in the scam cases.

Pleading that he was innocent and not even “remotely connected” with the scam, Mishra had said in a statement that allegations levelled against him in the case were “false, frivolous, baseless and intended to harm my reputation.”