HC admits appeal against Lalu, Rabri acquittal in DA case

PATNA: Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and his wife and former Chief Minister Rabri Devi suffered a major setback on Wednesday when the Patna High Court admitted for hearing the Bihar government's appeal challenging their acquittal in a disproportionate assets case, an off-shoot of the multi-crore fodder scam.
    
The order by the single judge bench of Justice R K Dutt is also being considered a setback for the CBI, which had decided not to move a superior court against the trial court verdict acquitting them in 2006.
    
The judge, who had on February 18 reserved his order on the state government's appeal on conclusion of arguments by the prosecution and the defence on the question of admissibility, admitted it for hearing and called for the documents from the special CBI court, which had acquitted the duo.
 
"It appears that the CBI court has solely relied on Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) order exonerating the respondent (Lalu/Rabri duo)," the judge said.
 
During the arguments, senior Supreme Court lawyer and state counsel Surendra Singh claimed that the trial court had virtually ignored the evidences produced by the CBI in support of the DA case against the couple.
 
"The learned counsel for the respondents strongly argued that the 94 defence witnesses had presented incontrovertible evidence (of innocence) during their examination. Unfortunately, the same is not reflected in the judgement of the special CBI court. In this circumstance, the High Court has no option but to reappreciate the entire evidences at the hearing of the state government's appeal in order to come to a proper conclusion in the matter," the judge said.
    
Justice Dutta, however, clarified that the observations and findings recorded in Thursday's order were related "only to the question of admissibility of the Bihar government's appeal and not not the final findings of the court on merit (of the case)."
    
Bihar government had on February 19 last year moved the Patna High Court against the acquittal of Lalu and Rabri in the DA case by CBI Judge Muni Lal Paswan on December 18, 2006.
  
The DA case charged Lalu Prasad with having amassed assets worth over Rs 46 lakh beyond his known sources of income when he was Bihar Chief Minister between 1990 and 1996. Rabri, currently the leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, was made a co-accused in the case for abetting the offence.
    
The counsels for Lalu-Rabri as also the CBI had during the hearing of a special leave petition by the couple in the Supreme Court a few months ago, contested the Bihar government's competence to challenge their acquittal by the CBI court.
    
They had argued that since the CBI, which is a central government agency, had probed all fodder scam cases, the premier investigative agency or the union government alone and not the state government were competent to challenge the acquittal.
    
The apex court had, however, not given any relief to the couple, saying it could hear the SLP only after the state government's appeal was admitted.
    
Eminent criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani while arguing on behalf of the couple in the High Court on January 28 described the NDA government's appeal as having arisen "unquestionably out of political vendetta".
    
To buttress his point, Jethmalani had said even the informant in the case, a Deputy Superintendent of Police with CBI, R K Kharagwal, on whose statement the FIR was registered in the case on August 18, 1998, had during the cross examination admitted he did not know why his name figured in the investigation and that he was not aware of any facts in the case.
    
Disputing Jethmalani's charge, state government counsel and senior Supreme Court lawyer Surendra Singh had claimed that the informant had submitted a confidential report to the then CBI SP V S Kaumudi which had formed the basis for registration of the FIR.
    
Singh ridiculed defence counsel's contention that the appeal had arisen out of political vendetta and said the state government only wanted the offenders to be brought to justice.