Aditya Vaibhav
New Delhi : RJD Chief Lalu Prasad has received a major political setback as the Supreme Court on May 8, 2017, ruled that the RJD leader will face separate trial in all four pending fodder scam cases. The BJP is already attacking Lalu over soil scam and construction of Bihar’s biggest Mall near Danapur, Patna.
Soon after the Supreme Court order, senior BJP leader and leader of opposition in Bihar legislative council Sushil Kumar Modi said the BJP would extend support to CM Nitish Kumar if he snaps his tie with the RJD. The BJP had earlier also demanded action against Lalu after his alleged telephonic conversation with jailed RJD leader and former Siwan MP Mohammad Shahabuddin.
A division bench of the Supreme Court set aside the 2014 Jharkhand High Court order, which had dropped conspiracy charges against him after his conviction in one of the cases, said the high court should have been consistent in its findings and not have given different views for different accused in a case. For each offence there will be separate trial, the court held. It asked the trial court to complete the proceedings against Lalu and others within nine months. The Apex Court also pulled up the CBI for the delay in filing the appeal against the high court order in the case.
The CBI had challenged the 2014 order of the Jharkhand High Court quashing four pending fodder scam cases against Lalu on the grounds that a person convicted in one case could not be tried in similar cases based on same witnesses and evidences.