Court bins Lalu Prasad’s petition for offline hearing in fodder case

RANCHI: The special CBI court, Ranchi, on Wednesday rejected the petition filed on behalf of RJD surpemo Lalu Prasad and others for offline hearing in the fodder scam case (RC47A/1996) related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 139.35 crore from the Doranda treasury between 1990-91 and 1994-95.
Lalu along with around 110 people are accused in the case.
The court passed the order while stating that online hearing in the case would be held continuously from Friday. It stated that defence lawyers could come to the court to attend the proceeding offline but they have to follow the Covid guidelines. The lawyers could also take their certified copies from the court.
CBI lawyer BMP Singh said, “We had opposed the petition on the ground that the Supreme Court and the High Court had directed for speedy disposal of the case.”
Lalu’s lawyer Prabhat Kumar said, “We would plan further course of action only after studying the order. It has not been uploaded till evening.”
It may be mentioned here that on Monday, Lalu’s lawyer had filed a petition seeking offline hearing while stating that there were voluminous documents to be exhibited. He said that it was not possible to argue the case online.
The prosecution side has completed its argument on the basis of 575 witnesses. The defence lawyers will start their arguments from the next hearing.