Warrant against Laloo

By K. Balchand

RANCHI, MAY 8. The designated CBI court today took cognisance of the chargesheet in a fresh conspiracy angle case of the fodder scam, which the CBI filed, and issued non-bailable arrest warrants against the two former Chief Ministers, Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav, and Dr. Jagannath Mishra, among others.

The CBI filed an interim chargesheet in connection with the case RC 47A/96 against the 110 accused as it did not have the sanction to prosecute the other 69 accused. The Jharkhand Government, had, in fact, turned down the proposal saying it did not have the authority to give green signal for prosecution. The case relates to the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs. 182 crores from the Doranda Treasury in Ranchi. The warrants are to be executed by May 22.

The chargesheet is the first to be filed in Ranchi in connection with the fodder scam. The 36 earlier chargesheets were filed in the special CBI court in Patna. The CBI action was preceded by a Patna High Court ruling which rejected the CBI plea for a transfer of these cases to Jharkhand and ordered that the hearing proceed as usual.

The RJD has taken exception to the chargesheet, while its supremo is seeking legal opinion on his next course of action. The party spokesman, Mr. Shivanand Tiwari, was categorical that Mr. Yadav would honour the court's directive and surrender before the special CBI court in Ranchi if it had indeed issued the arrest warrants.

Mr. Yadav had surrendered twice earlier and served as an undertrial in Bihar. But this time he would be required to undergo imprisonment outside Bihar - something the RJD rebels have been waiting for to make a fresh bid for a change in the leadership.

The expelled MPs had announced last week that they would return to Patna on Friday and bring down the Government in less than a fortnight.

Mr. Yadav had moved fast throwing out his detractors and consolidating his position by holding an emergency meeting of the national executive last month.Mr. Tiwari accused the CBI of violating the Patna High Court order by filing the chargesheet in Ranchi. He claimed that the court had laid down that the conspiracy angle cases were to be tried in Patna. The ruling had noted the apprehensions of Mr. Yadav and allowed him to approach the court in case the CBI filed a case elsewhere.

According to him, Mr. Yadav had the option of filing a contempt petition against the CBI, which had `misled' the designated court at Ranchi by not producing the High Court and monitoring bench rulings.

The CBI was serving as a political tool. Ruling out the possibility of any harm befalling the Rabri Devi Government, Mr. Tiwari said all the MLAs were behind the RJD supremo.

RJD meeting convened

Preparing to counter the dissidents' move ahead of surrendering before the special CBI court at Ranchi, Mr. Yadav hurriedly convened the RJD Legislature party meeting late in the evening to take stock of the situation. Before convening the meeting, Mr. Yadav expelled his party MP in the Rajya Sabha, Mr. Mahendra Prasad Singh, to avoid a split.

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