NEW DELHI: In another jolt to RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that he and other accused will face a separate trial for each case in Rs 900 crore fodder scam.
A bench of Justices Amitava Roy and P C Ghose allowed the plea by CBI against the dropping of a conspiracy charge against Lalu Prasad by the Jharkhand High Court in one of the fodder scam cases.
The bench sets aside high court order which had said the entire fodder scam conspiracy was one and Lalu Prasad Yadav cannot be tried separately for each case. The bench also sets aside high court relief for former chief minister M Jagannath Mishra and former bureaucrat Sajal Chakraborty.
The court criticised CBI for the delay in appealing against dropping of the charge against Lalu Prasad.
The court also directed the trial court to expedite trial against Lalu Prasad and others in Deoghar treasury withdrawal case within 9 months.
The apex court had on April 20 reserved its judgement in the case.
Lalu Prasad has already been convicted by a trial court and sentenced to 5 years jail term in Chaibasa treasury withdrawal case, as a result, he was disqualified from contesting any election for 11 years. He then approached the Jharkhand high court challenging the verdict of the CBI court.
CBI in its appeal against the High Court order of upholding the agency's plea to continue proceedings in the trial court against Prasad under two sections, while dropping other charges on grounds that a person could not be tried twice for the same offence.
The fodder scam pertains to fraudulent withdrawal of around Rs 1,000 crore by the Animal Husbandry department from various districts when Lalu was the Bihar chief minister from 1990 to 1997.