RJD Chief and former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav (PTI/File Photo)
The pending case RJD chief Lalu Prasad referred to against Nitish Kumar dates back to November 1991 when one Sitaram Singh, 22, from Dhibar village was killed in firing at a booth during Barh Lok Sabha by-poll.
It is alleged that then Janata Dal (JD) candidate Nitish Kumar and other leaders of his party — Dularchand Yadav, Dilip Singh, Yogendra Yadav and Baudhu Yadav — had allegedly disrupted polling at the booth. Singh was killed and four were wounded in firing after a clash with villagers.
The murder case was lodged against five JD leaders including Nitish, who defeated Congress’s Sidheshwar Prasad in the by-poll. Names of Nitish and Dularchand Yadav were dropped from the chargesheet submitted before a Barh civil court on January 31, 1993. Barh’s additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM) took cognizance of the case in August 2008. Singh and Baudhu Yadav had died by then.
A year later, a witness, Ashok Singh, filed a case before the ACJM challenging dropping of Nitish’s and Yadav’s names as accused. In September 2009, the ACJM summoned Nitish and Dularchand Yadav to appear before it. Bihar advocate general P K Sahi called the summons “void, illegal” as the Patna High Court had stayed the proceedings in the case.
The only accused moved the High Court and got fresh stay on the proceedings on September 7, 2009. Nitish moved the court a day later and got stay on the summons and the court proceedings before the Barh court. The High Court directed the lower court to submit all case papers.
JD (U) spokesman Neeraj Kumar said that the case is in public domain. “The CM’s name had long been dropped from chargesheet. Lalu Prasad has been raking up the case in vain.’’
