TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ In a major blow to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, the Supreme Court today allowed a plea by CBI opposing dropping of charges against him by Jharkhand High Court in the Rs 1000 crore fodder scam case.
Lalu Prasad Yadav will be tried on criminal charges for corruption during his term as Chief Minister of Bihar, the Supreme Court ruled today, rejecting his request for the more grave charges including criminal conspiracy to be deleted.
The apex court has also ordered trial court to complete the trial within 9 months. The court earlier on April 20 reserved its judgement in the case and asked all parties concerned to give their submissions within a week.
The court also heard the plea filed by the former Bihar chief minister challenging his jail sentence in connection with the case. The CBI had filed a plea in the apex court against the dropping of a conspiracy charge against Lalu Prasad by the Jharkhand High Court in one of the fodder scam cases.
The probe agency then filed its latest appeal against the High Court order 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 relates 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.
