Hearing On Fodder Scam Today

The Patna High Court will resume hearing today on the progress made by the CBI in investigating the conspiracy angle case of the Rs 950-crore fodder scam. The sitting of the division bench comprising Justice S N Jha and Justice S J Mukhopadhya, monitoring investigations into the scam, assumes significance in view of the agency's affidavit in the court on the 'threat perception' to its officials coming in the way of arresting some politicians, including Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav.

The CBI on Thursday submitted an affidavit highlighting 'security risk' to its officials and said this had prevented them from taking 'any action' against some politicians involved in conspiracy angle cases of the scam. The state government has filed a counter-affidavit on the matter.

The hearing is considered significant in view of separate inquiry reports submitted in the court by CBI and CID of Bihar into the circumstances which led to the death of scam accused Harish Khandelwal. Khandelwal's body was recovered near a railway crossing at Dhanbad reportedly a day after his interrogation by CBI in connection with the scam in May last. The CBI DIG, R N Kaul, had already submitted his report into the case on June 30 while the CID filed its report in a sealed cover on Friday on the directive of the court. The division bench on Monday said if necessary, it would hand over the investigation into Khandelwal's death to the CBI after perusing reports of both the investigating agencies.