CBI reprieve for Laloo till July 21

In an apparent climbdown, the Laloo camp today floated a three-point package to resolve the crisis in the party. Faced with a leadership tangle, Laloo favoured Prime Minister IK Gujral as the Dal president, but the Sharad Yadav camp ruled out any patch up with the Bihar Chief Minister.

As per the package deal for rapproachment, if the Prime Minister is not prepared to take on the party leadership, Laloo should be allowed to continue as the Dal chief for six more months and his challenger Sharad Yadav be accommodated in the union cabinet.

If none of the two proposals are acceptabale, the Prime Minister should constitute a five-member panel to short list leaders for the top post.However, the offer had two riders, with Laloo Prasad insisting that none among HD Deve Gowda, Ram Vilas Paswan, Sharad Yadav, Madhu Dandavate and Surendra Mohan should be included in the panel and the final decision must be made jointly by Gujral, Sharad Yadav and himself.

Meanwhile, another bench of the Patna High Court has asked the CBI to file an affidavit on the “threat perception” to its officials which had prevented it from arresting some top politicians, including Laloo. Accusing the Central government of preventing the arrests, the court threatened to expose the persons trying to scuttle the probe.

The court’s direction for filing the affidavit came when CBI Joint Director (East) UN Biswas highlighted the threat perception to his officials in arresting some influential accused.

The division bench comprising Justices SN Jha and SJ Mukhopadhyay threatened to expose the persons trying to scuttle the investigation.

Justice Jha said, “Sorry to observe that the Central government has prevented the arrests. The CBI is discriminating. They have been warned not to touch the politicians. Not a single suggestion has come whether they be taken into custody.”

Explaining the agency’s constraints in arresting the accused, Biswas created a flutter inside the court when he revealed that CBI sleuths were unable to carry the instructions of the court to arrest the accused due to the deteriorating law and order situation.

Citing the June 24 incident of JD workers moving around Raj Bhavan a highly protected zone with spears and swords just in front of the DM and senior police officials, Biswas sought to know how one could venture to arrest the politicians. Biswas agreed to furnish an affidavit that his men were facing threats.

Justice Mukhopadhyay wanted to know why the Intelligence Bureau was not informing the Government that the CBI was not in a position to investigate and arrest the accused. The central government received flak from the court for delaying the matter of sanction against the IAS officers. Justice Mukhopadhyay said, “We will expose everybody, however powerful they may be.”

Bihar politics continued to dominate developments in the capital. The Sharad Yadav camp ruled out any patch-up with the Bihar Chief Minister, and cautioned the Prime Minister not to “put his honour at stake”. He demanded that the election process be completed by the deadline set by the apex court.

The Prime Minister on his part began talks with HD Deve Gowda and other senior leaders to resolve the crisis. Apart from former Prime Minister, SR Bommai, Jaipal Reddy, Ram Vilas Paswan and returning officer Madhu Dandavate attended the meeting to discuss the 3-point formula floated by Laloo’s supporters.