CBI orders Laloo8217;s arrest

CBI director RC Sharma had earlier directed Joint Director East UN Biswas, in charge of the case, to execute the non-bailable arrest warrant issued by the special court in Patna on July 24. Sharma had asked the CBI officials in Patna to take utmost care in executing the arrest warrant against Laloo and asked them to take the assistance of the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police.

Two of Laloo8217;s former ministers Vidyasagar Nishad and Bhola Ram Toofani also face arrest for their role as conspirators after the Supreme Court dismissed their special leave petitions.

Earlier in the day, a three-judge Supreme Court bench, comprising Justices MK Mukherjee, SP Kurdurkar and KT Thomas, rejecting the bail pleas of Laloo and his former cabinet colleagues said that it was of the view that this was not a fit case for granting bail.

The bench made it clear that they were refraining from giving detailed reasons for rejecting the bail petition of Laloo Yadav as it did not want the special court trying the scam to be even 8220;unconsciously affected as also to prevent any prejudice to the petitioner himself for his defence in the case8221;.

The judges vacated their interim order passed last Friday restraining the CBI from arresting the former Chief Minister.

Senior defence counsel Rajinder Singh, appearing for Yadav, told the court that there was not even an 8220;iota of admissible evidence8221; that the former Chief Minister had at any time received any scam money or had tried to scuttle investigations.

Yadav had, on coming to know of the scam, ordered a vigilance inquiry into the alleged misappropriation of funds from the Animal Husbandry department.8220;Therefore the charge that he was one of the conspirators did not stick. There was also no admissible evidence to prove that he as Chief Minister of the state of Bihar had not allowed the probe to proceed and had helped officials who had illegally withdrawn funds to escape the clutches of the law,8221; Singh told the court. The judges observed during the proceedings that according to the prosecution it was primarily a case of omission against the petitioner. 8220;If omissions are illegal then such an act will itself be an admission of conspiracy. The former Chief Minister had a legal duty to report the case to the police. This was what an ordinary citizen would have done. If you do not do so as Chief Minister it will amount to an illegal act and lead to a conspiracy,8221; the judges said.

Rajinder Singh contended that the Chief Minister had immediately ordered a vigilance probe on coming to know of the scam. However, the issue was raised in the Legislature and referred to the Public Accounts Committee thus preventing the vigilance probe from proceeding further.

Along the course of the hearing, the defence counsel submitted that evidence in the case was still to be laid and at this stage only allegations were being hurled.8220;This situation cannot be ground for denying me anticipatory bail. The charges have still to be established and I am entitled to the presumption of innocence and not guilt,8221; the former Chief Minister said in his petition.The judges pointed out that presumption came only at the time of the trial and not at this stage.