Bihar Council Defers Decision On Breach Of Privilege Issue

The privilege committee of the Bihar legislative council yesterday deferred its decision till May 31 on the contentious issue of breach of privilege by a set of CBI officials including joint director (east), U N Biswas.

Five out of 10 committee members attended yesterday s meeting and the committee could not consider the reply of the CBI in detail since the members, according to its chairman, Tara Kant Jha of the BJP, had other engagements . A final decision would be taken on May 31 , he said.

Two sets of explanations were furnished by the investigating agency. While the former DIG of the Patna branch of the CBI, Ranjit Sinha, sent a separate reply, the joint director, V S K Kumudi, Javed Ahmed (both SPs) and S K Dev (DSP) submitted a joint reply. The joint reply carried the signature of Javed Ahmed, as he was abroad on a special training.

Sinha in his reply to the committee has stated that he had nothing to do with the CBI s deposition before the court on March 28, 1997 that the council was not cooperating with the investigating agency to unravel the fodder scam. I was relieved by the CBI on March 10 and hence I have nothing to do with it .

The committee s chairman, however, refused to disclose the contents of reply given by other officials.

Jha, however said that there was no confrontation between the judiciary and legislature and claimed that the council had fully cooperated with the CBI and it has no bias, ill will or ill feeling against the investigating agency.

Jha said that as an advocate and chairman of the committees, I will not be a party to process or a game that does not keep the privilege of the court and dignity of the House. The Legislative council had served privilege notice on the CBI for misleading the monitoring bench of the Patna High court about the non-cooperation of the council in providing the relevant files to it relating to animal husbandry department swindle. The allegation of CBI was challenged by the council s advocate on May and the joint director had narrated before the Court that the CBI officials were working under tremendous psychological pressure due to the privilege notice.

He had also stated that it was not the motive of the CBI to cast aspersion on the members but if it had been caused inadvertently, I am prepared to express my regrets. The court after hearing both the parties had expressed hope that the privilege motion might be dropped after considering the regrets expressed by the investigating agency. and had directed it to appear before the privilege committee on June 6.

To a pointed query the chairman of the committee said the matter was serious since the council was involved but he declined to commit that the matter would be dropped.

Meanwhile Bihar Assembly speaker Deo Narayan Yadav said here on Tuesday that he would take disciplinary action against officials responsible for the disappearance of the file relating to the Nivedan Samiti (Request Committee) if it was not retrieved. The speaker had served show cause notice on eight officials in this connection. The leader of the opposition Sushil Kumar Modi yesterday met the Governor and requested him to take stern action against the officials, politicians and employees responsible for the disappearance of the file. The file deals with the fodder scam.