Lalu's fate in fodder case on September 30

A special CBI court today fixed September 30 as the judgement day for 45 accused, including Lalu Prasad, after the RJD chief completed his arguments in a fodder case.

The court of Pravas Kumar Singh heard the arguments of Prasad's counsel Surendra Singh before reserving the judgement in the case pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore from Chaibasa treasury in the early 1990s.

Prasad's advocate contended that the entire prosecution against his client was illegal because the then governor sanctioned prosecution order against the RJD chief without taking the sanction of the Cabinet - an argument the CBI rejected saying it was not necessary for the governor to take the sanction order from Cabinet.

The special courts have already pronounced judgements in 44 out of 53 fodder cases over the years.

During the course of day-to-day arguments which began on September 9, Prasad's advocate claimed his client did not know about the scam till 1996.

The counsel told the court that the former Bihar chief minister was the person who had issued directions to lodge FIR and take action against the guilty soon after he learnt about it on January 21 that year after getting the preliminary report probed by the then Finance Commissioner V S Dubey.

Putting up a strong defence claiming his client's non-involvement in the case reflected in the fact that 41 FIRs had been lodged on his direction in connection with fraudulent withdrawal of funds from different treasuries in undivided Bihar.