State BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi today described the Jharkhand High Court hearing on fodder scam against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and others as "serious" and alleged that due to issues raised by him, the state government was looking for an opportunity to send him to jail by implicating him in some false case.
"He (CM) is right in saying that he has heard about his involvement in fodder scam a hundred times in the past but nothing came out. But November 22 hearing is serious considering the fact it is for the first time a High Court has asked CBI to file counter affidavit about involvement of him (Kumar) and two other JD(U) leaders", Sushil Modi told reporters.
On the basis of a PIL filed by one Mithilesh Singh, the Jharkhand High Court has asked CBI to file a counter affidavit about involvement of Kumar, JD(U) MPs--Rajiv Singh Lallan and Shivanand Tiwari on November 22 next.
Modi, former Deputy Chief Minister, said that parting of ways between JD(U) and BJP in June had nothing to do with their raising issues against Kumar in multi-crore fodder scam.
"We have been vociferous now because it is for the first time that Jharkhand High Court took cognisance of complaint against Kumar and two others and ordered CBI to reply," Sushil Modi, one of the petitioner in the multi-crore fodder scam in which RJD President Lalu Prasad has been convicted for 5 years and is in Ranchi jail now, said.
He alleged that feeling the heat of the fodder scam, Kumar used an old friend and accused in the scam Umesh Prasad to hold a press conference and clear his name in the scandal.
The CBI documents confirm that Prasad, who worked as section officer in Vigilance department, himself had a "dubious" role in the scam and even went to jail for the same.
Moreover, Prasad while being in Beur jail in Patna, had written a letter to CBI saying he was being pressurised to name Sushil Modi in the scam.
Modi alleged that frightened by the issues raised by him in fodder scam and other shortcomings in the state government, the government had been perusing through files of the past seven years when he was Finance minister to "send him to jail by implicating in some false case."
"If former Union minister A Raja and Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda can be punished by courts why can't it be Kumar?"he asked.
