PATNA: A special CBI court in Patna on Wednesday issued production warrant against
RJD chief
Lalu Prasad and eight other accused in Bhagalpur treasury case related to the fodder scam.
The special court-III judge Devraj Tripathy issued the warrant and fixed January 10 as the date of production of Lalu and eight others in the case, which is related to fraudulent withdrawal of around Rs45 lakh from Bhagalpur treasury in 1990s.
The other accused against whom the court issued production warrants are former MLAs RK
Rana and Jagdish Prasad, retired IAS officers Beck Julius, Phoolchand Singh and
Mahesh Prasad and animal medicine suppliers Tripurari Mohan Prasad, Sunil Kumar Sinha and Shushil Kumar Singh.
Rana, Prasad and the three retired IAS officers and the three suppliers along with Lalu were held guilty by the special CBI court in Ranchi on December 23 in the similar case of fraudulent withdrawal of around Rs89 lakh from Deoghar treasury. They are lodged in
Birsa Munda Central Jail at Ranchi in Jharkhand and the quantum of judgment against them would be pronounced on Friday.
The court also issued production warrant against Rana in the disproportionate assets (DA) case against him, arising out of the fodder scam. Daily hearing in the case is also going on. Rana's wife Naina Rana is also accused in the DA case.
The production warrants were issued by the special court after Lalu's defence counsel Chittaranjan Sinha, along with counsels of other convicts, moved court for it on Tuesday.
CBI sources said the move of getting production warrant issued against Lalu and eight others was to bring them at
Beur Central Jail in Patna. "Given the fact that hearing in three more fodder scam cases is going on in Ranchi court. even the production warrant from Patna CBI court is unlikely to help them in shifting to Patna jail," CBI sources said.
The hearing in the fodder scam and the DA case in Patna is going on daily basis by the special court after the Patna high court converted it into an exclusive court in November last year to complete the trial in fodder scam cases on priority basis.
Sources said 25 more cases apart from those related to the fodder scam and being heard by the court-III would be transferred to the special CBI court-I soon.
