| With the framing of charges against Railway Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad in the second fodder scam case, the Left parties have started feeling the political burden of carrying Parasd along in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). |
| After a meeting of the four Left parties, supporting the Manmohan Singh government from outside, here today, the Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) demanded the resignation of the railway minister. |
| "In view of the fresh charges against him, the second in over a fortnight, Prasad must resign (from the UPA government) on moral grounds," Forward Bloc MP Debabrata Biswas said. |
| The Left parties had a 90-minute meeting ahead of tomorrow's UPA co-ordination committee meeting. Biswas said the CBI court in Ranchi rejecting Prasad's discharge petition and framing charges came up for discussion at the meeting. |
| According to sources, the fresh chargesheet against Prasad is likely to be taken up at the co-ordination committee along with the Left parties' other demands like probe into selloff of hotels, oil prices and its (Left's) assessment of the performance of the UPA government. Biswas said till the time Prasad came out clean, he should not join the government. |
| Without naming Prasad, Abani Roy (RSP) said any politician, either an MLA or a MP, should resign from his office on moral ground if there was any allegation against that person. "This will enhance his or her image and the prestige of the party," Roy said. |
| On being asked, AB Bardhan, CPI general secretary, said his party and the CPI(M) had just come to know about the fresh charges framed against the railway minister and they would give their comments after going through them. |
| A special CBI court framed charges against Prasad in connection with the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 3.13 crore from a government treasury after rejecting his discharge plea. |
| The charges were read out in the court of CBI Special Judge Sanjay Prasad in the presence of the railway minister, former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra and 37 others in connection with the case pertaining to the illegal withdrawal of funds from the Dumka treasury between December 1995 and January 1996. |
| Forty-nine people were accused in the case. While six have died, three have turned approvers. |
| On April 25, a special CBI court of Umashankar Prasad had framed charges against Prasad, Mishra and 68 others in a case relating to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37 crore in 1996 from the Chaibasa treasury, now in Jharkhand. |
| The CBI has filed charge-sheets in 60 cases, out of which 53 are being tried in the courts at Ranchi and seven in the courts at Patna. |
| The Rs 950 crore fodder scam was unearthed in Bihar in 1996 when Prasad was the chief minister. He had resigned from the post in 1997 after a court issued a warrant in one of the cases. After the creation of Jharkhand in 2000, 39 of the 61 cases were transferred to the new state. |
| The charges were framed in the case (RC/38a'96) under Sections 420 (cheating), 120b (conspiracy), 467 (forgery of valuable documents) of the Indian Penal Code and 13(1) and 13(1)d of the Prevention of Corruption Act. |
| The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had boycotted Parliament proceedings during the Budget Session demanding Prasad's dismissal from the Union Cabinet after the framing of charges against him, too stepped up its offensive. |
| "Charges have been framed against Prasad for the second time in a fortnight for cheating, conspiracy and under the Prevention of Corruption Act and not for involvement in any political movement. He should resign on moral grounds or the Prime Minister should dismiss him," BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said. |
| Now its up to the Congress and the Prime Minister to react to the fresh charges and the Left parties' demand for Prasad's removal. |
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