HC admits Bihar government's appeal against Lalu-Rabri duo

The Patna High Court on Thursday admitted an appeal by Bihar government challenging acquittal of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi in a disproportionate assets case. Justice R K Dutta, who had on 18th February reserved the order on conclusion of arguments on the admissibility of the state government's appeal, admitted it for hearing and called for documents from the special CBI court which had acquitted the duo. Arguing on behalf of the duo, who had contested the state government's competence to move an appeal against the acquittal, noted criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani had on January 28 described the NDA government's appeal as having arisen "unquestionably out of political vendetta". Senior Supreme Court lawyer and state counsel Surendra Singh had, however, countered the charge, saying the trial court had not relied on evidences produced by the prosecution (CBI) in support of the DA case against the duo. "Instead, the CBI court seems to have been influenced by the income tax appellate tribunal's order exonerating the couple of the charge of amassing assets disproportionate to their known sources of income," he had pleaded. That order "should not be binding", Singh argued and urged the court to set aside the CBI court's order. Jethmalani then said, even the informant in the case, CBI Dy SP R K Kharagwal, on whose statement the FIR was registered on 18th August, 1998, had during the course of cross examination said 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 claim, Singh said 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 in the case on 18th August, 1998. Counsels for the CBI and Lalu-Rabri had, during the hearing of the special leave petition filed by the couple in the Supreme Court, contested the Bihar government's right to challenge their acquittal by the trial court. Since the CBI, which is a central government agency, had probed the fodder scam cases, the premier investigative agency or the Union government alone and not the state government, was competent to challenge the acquittal, they had argued. However, the Supreme Court had not given any relief to the couple saying it could hear the SLP only after the state government's appeal was admitted. Earlier, during the resumed hearing in the Patna High Court on the admission of Bihar government's appeal, its counsel and Supreme Court lawyer Surendra Singh had on 24th January argued that the CBI had grossly erred in calculating the household expense of Lalu and his wife. The Bihar government had on 19th February 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 18th December, 2006. The DA case charged Lalu Prasad with amassing assets worth over Rs 46 lakh beyond his known sources of income when he was chief minister between 1990 and 1996.

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