RJD national general secretary Bhola Yadav today blamed "distorted" media reports on his views on party chief Lalu Prasad's latest conviction in a fodder scam case for a Ranchi court's contempt notice issued yesterday to him.
In a statement issued here, Yadav, who is an RJD MLA and Prasad's close confidant, said, "It has been the RJD's stand all through that Lalu is not getting justice because of the biased investigation by the CBI. I had made a statement to this effect while leaving for Delhi last month."
"Since I was in Delhi by the side of Prasad, who is ill and undergoing treatment at AIIMS, I could not notice how my opinion was presented in the media. The Hindi newspaper report cited by the court is a distorted one and I urge the newspaper to publish a corrigendum," Yadav said.
Special CBI judge Shiv Pal Singh has summoned Yadav on April 19, taking note of a report which had appeared on March 29 in a multi-edition Hindi daily.
While issuing the notice, the judge said that the RJD leader had "intentionally used contemptuous and scandalous words, intended to lower the authority of this court" and "thereby caused criminal contempt."
Yadav said "I maintain that had the CBI carried out its probe in an impartial manner, Prasad would have not been found guilty in any of the cases. My accusation was pointedly against the CBI and not against the honourable court".
"Of course, as aggrieved parties we have been saying that we will be appealing against the lower court order before the high court and, if needed, the Supreme Court. But that does not imply we are casting aspersions on the trial court," he added.
The RJD supremo has been in jail since December 23 when he was convicted in a case relating to fraudulent withdrawal of money from Deoghar treasury. Since then he has been convicted in three more cases.
In a toughest ever sentence to a politician, Lalu Prasad was awarded a total of 14 years in prison on March 24 in the fourth case related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 3.13 crore from Dumka treasury.
The first time the former Bihar chief minister was convicted in a fodder scam case was in the year 2013, which led him to lose his Lok Sabha membership besides disqualification from contesting elections.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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