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In a big blow to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, the Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected his plea for transfer of the judge hearing the fodder scam case against him in Jharkhand and asked the trial court to pronounce the verdict as soon as possible.
A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam dismissed the allegations of the RJD supremo that the trial judge, being a relative of a minister in the Nitish Kumar government, was biased against him and questioned Yadav's move to raise the issue towards the end of the trial.
The apex court also set a time frame for concluding the proceedings, granting five days to the Central Bureau of Investigation and 15 days to accused persons to wrap up their final arguments in the case.
The bench, also comprising judges Ranjana Desai and Ranjan Gogoi, said it was not inclined to entertain the allegations against the judge and vacated its stay on the trial court proceedings. The bench had earlier virtually agreed to transfer the judge and had asked the CBI and Yadav's counsel to name an alternate judge to hear the case. The apex court had on July 23 said it would pass order either directing the High Court to appoint a new judge or would itself do so if there was a consensus among the parties on the name of the judge to hear the case.
It had also asked the parties to evolve a consensus on the name of the judge by August 6. However, on the next date of hearing, the bench refrained from passing any order in view of stiff opposition from Janata Dal (United) leader Rajiv Ranjan, who had submitted that it would be a "travesty of justice" if the judge was transferred at the fag end of the trial.
Ranjan, on whose plea the Jharkhand high court is monitoring the probe in the fodder scam, had argued it would give a wrong impression to the entire country if the judge is transferred and raised a question on Yadav's petition seeking transfer of the judge who has been hearing the case since 2011. The case pertains to alleged fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore from the Chaibasa Treasury in the 1990s. The first information report was lodged by the Bihar government in February 1996 and the case transferred to CBI a month later.
CBI had investigated the scam for a year and the chargesheet was filed in 1997.
The charges were framed in 2000, following which the court commenced trial against Yadav and 44 other accused.
