Rabri gets bail, Laloo remanded

By K. Balchand

PATNA, APRIL 5: The Bihar Chief Minister, Mrs. Rabri Devi, and her husband and former Chief Minister, Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav, today surrendered in the `disproportionate assets' (DA) case before the designated court of the Central Bureau of Investigation. The court rejected Mr. Laloo Yadav's bail petition but granted bail to Mrs. Rabri Devi. This averted a political crisis that threatened to envelop the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the ruling coalition.

The Chief Minister and Mr. Yadav surrendered before the court after it had taken cognisance of the chargesheet filed against them by the CBI in the case on Monday. The CBI Special Judge, Mr. S.K. Lal, had also ordered the issuance of non-bailable arrest warrants against the couple.

Mr. and Mrs. Laloo Yadav were among the first to arrive at the court premises around 7.15 a.m. and surrendered even though the CBI had not yet obtained the arrest warrants from the court. In fact, the RJD camp had kept a night-long vigil on the CBI. The strategy apparently was that the Chief Minister and Mr. Yadav would surrender before the CBI judge - no matter what the time - should the investigating agency succeed in procuring the arrest warrants.

On surrendering, they moved their bail petitions which were heard forthwith. Mr. Lal turned down the bail petition of Mr. Laloo Yadav on the ground that he was the main accused and that the allegations against him were quite serious.

On the other hand, he granted bail to the Chief Minister in view of the nature of the allegations and that under existing family relations in society the wife was always under the influence of her husband. She was asked to furnish a bond for Rs. 2 lakhs with two separate sureties for a like amount.

Mrs. Rabri Devi was in the court room for about 75 minutes. The court remanded Mr. Yadav to judicial custody but did not specify the date for his production in the court which it intended to fix later.

Mr. Yadav said he and his wife had surrendered even before the court papers were served on them to dispel doubts in any quarter and because they respected the judiciary. This is the third time that Mr. Yadav has been remanded to judicial custody. On two earlier occasions, it was in connection with the conspiracy angle cases centering round the fodder scam.

The CBI in its chargesheet had said that Mr. Yadav had assets worth Rs. 42 lakhs in excess of his known sources of income and that his wife abetted in the crime. In their joint petition, the Yadavs maintained that they were being hounded by the CBI at the behest of the NDA Government at the Centre; also, that the CBI had omitted to take into account Mr. Yadav's income prior to 1990 and had over-assessed their assets without justification to make out a false case. The court directed the IGP (Prisons), and the Superintendent of the Patna Central Jail, Beur, to provide adequate security to Mr. Yadav in the light of the fact that several dreaded criminals had been lodged there currently. It also issued copies of its orders to the Home Secretary, the District Magistrate and the SSP, Patna.

Charges in fodder case

After disposing of the bail petitions, the court framed charges against Mr. Yadav and Dr. Jagannath Mishra, former Chief Minister, and 50 others in the first conspiracy angle case related to the fodder scam and announced that the trial would start on June 19. The case relates to the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs. 37.7 crores from the Chaibasa treasury.

The court said that over 400 witnesses had been cited and that it would take not less than 1,000 working days if the trial were to proceed on a day-to-day basis even if only 75 per cent of them were examined. It would take no less than five years to complete the trial given that there were just about 200 working days in a year.

Soon after Mrs. Rabri Devi secured bail, Mr. Yadav stood his ground and ruled out the possibility of her resigning as Chief Minister reiterating that everyone was equal in the eyes of the law.

The NDA leaders seem to have lost some of their newfound fire soon after the Chief Minister secured bail. They staged a dharna under the leadership of Mr. Nitish Kumar demanding the resignation of the Chief Minister and that the Governor should dismiss her. They, however, changed their stand in maintaining that they had not tried to topple the Rabri Devi Government.

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