NEW DELHI: Trouble continues to brew for railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, with the CBI special court in Ranchi rejecting his discharge petition on Tuesday and framing charges against him in yet another fodder scam case. This is the second time in less than a month that a chargesheet has been framed against the RJD supremo and railway minister in connection with the fraudulent withdrawal of over Rs30 million from a government treasury.

The charges were read out in the Ranchi court by CBI special judge Sanjay Prasad in the presence of the railway minister, Mr Lalu Yadav, former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra and 37 others who are accused in the case.

The charges were framed in connection with the illegal withdrawal of funds from the Dumka treasury between December 1995 and January 1996. There were a total of 49 accused in the case. While six of them died, three others turned approver. The charges were framed under Sections 420 (cheating), 120b (conspiracy), 467 (forgery of valuable documents) of the IPC and Sections 13(1) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. In another major development, differences emerged over Lalu Yadav within the Left Front.

The RSP and the Forward Bloc have delivered a body blow to the railway minister by demanding the resignation of a “chargesheeted politician,” while the CPI — “guided” by big brother CPI(M) — chose to keep silent on the issue, sources said.

Without directly naming Mr Lalu Yadav, RSP leader Abani Roy on Tuesday demanded that “any politician, either an MLA or MP, should resign from his office on moral grounds if there was any allegation against that person. This will enhance his or her image and the prestige of the party.”

As the Left parties met around 4 pm, CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan raised the Lalu issue, saying that the RSP had already demanded his resignation. Sources said that the CPI had “sought advice” from the CPI(M) on how to react to this development. The CPI(M) asked the CPI to tell the media that it would comment only after going through the copy of the judgment.

Both the CPI and CPI(M) stuck to this particular approach and refused to comment till they had “studied the documents.”

The Rs9.5 billion fodder scam was unearthed in Bihar in 1996 when Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav was state 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.—By arrangement with Asian Age