You are like God for us: Lalu tells CBI judge

Ranchi: Facing the toughest battle of his long political career, jailed RJD supremo Lalu Prasad today saw God in judges trying the multi-crore fodder scam cases against him and several others. “No problem, sir. You are like God for us,” Prasad quipped in response to a query by Special CBI Judge AK Mishra during video conferencing whether he had any problem. He said that he had no problem. [caption id=“attachment_1160775” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Lalu Prasad Yadav. AFP[/caption] When the judge reached the Video Conferencing Hall at the court premises in Ranchi, Prasad, who was sitting inside the hall at the Birsa Munda Central Jail at the other end, stood up and greeted him with folded hands and said Namaskar. Prasad, sitting JD(U) MP Jagdish Sharma and former MLA RK Rana appeared through video conferencing before the CBI court in another fodder scam case relating to Chaibasa treasury. The former Bihar chief minister replied in the affirmative when the judge asked him whether he knew that he was one of the accused in the RC68 A/96 case (Chaibasa case). The statement of a prosecution witness Jay Narayan Prasad Verma was recorded in the case pertaining to alleged withdrawal of Rs 39 crore from the Chaibasa Treasury in the 1990s by producing false bills. Prasad, Sharma and Rana had appeared through video conferencing from jail before the special CBI court of Sitaram Prasad in a separate fodder scam case yesterday. The three accused would again appear on 12 November in the case pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 97 lakh from Deogarh Treasury in the 1990s. After being sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment in a fodder scam case on October three, Prasad faces four more cases relating to alleged withdrawal of funds from different treasuries during his regime in undivided Bihar. Forty-five of 53 cases of the fodder scam have ended in conviction with a few acquittals by the special CBI courts set up to try the Rs 950 crore Animal Husbandry Department scam, better known as fodder scam. Barring one convict, who was sentenced to ten years in prison in a case, the others mostly received prison terms of up to seven years. Former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra, who was admitted to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences soon after being convicted in the case, was yesterday referred to the AIIMS. Mishra was sentenced to four years rigorous imprisonment on October three. PTI