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Sadhu Yadav surrenders finally

Remanded to judicial custody; bail plea hearing tomorrow

CORNERED: Sadhu Yadav, RJD MP, arrives to surrender at a court in Patna on Monday. Photo: PTI

Patna: Faced with the prospect of attachment of his property, RJD MP Anirudh Prasad alias Sadhu Yadav on Monday surrendered in a case of forgery and cheating before a special vigilance court which remanded him in judicial custody till December 12, but granted the prosecution's prayer for two days' remand for interrogation.

The high-profile Lok Sabha member from Gopalganj, brother-in-law of Railway Minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad, surrendered before vigilance judge Munilal Paswan in the case, an offshoot of the multi-crore flood relief scam, at around 11 am.

His counsel Janardan Rai later moved a petition for bail which was posted for hearing on December 6.

Yadav's surrender follows the rejection of his anticipatory bail application by the Supreme Court on December 1 and by the vigilance court's November 25 order for attachment of his property.

Vigilance counsel Bhola Prasad Sharma moved a petition seeking five days' remand of the MP, who had been evading arrest since September 11 in the case, to enable the investigating agency to interrogate Yadav.

The plea for vigilance remand for Yadav was strongly opposed by his counsel, but the court finally granted the agency two days to interrogate him in custody.

Additional Director General (vigilance) Neelmani told PTI that the bureau was likely to take Yadav on remand on Tuesday. Yadav would, in the meantime, be taken to Beur jail.

The Vigilance Bureau had on September 5 registered a case under various sections of Indian Penal Code relating to forgery and cheating against Yadav charging that the MP had falsified the documents to prove that Rs 6 lakh in his Patna secretariat branch bank account had come from the sale of a vehicle, which in fact, was not his.

Yadav had claimed that the money had come from the sale of an Opel Astra car to one Bhagwan Lal Jha, father of supplier of relief material and alleged kingpin of the flood relief scam Santosh Jha.

Contesting Yadav's claim, the Vigilance Bureau had said the original owner of the vehicle one Sumit Ranjan Jena of Delhi had on May 18 this year given a statement to the metropolitan magistrate at Patiala House court that his vehicle was purchased on loan from ICICI bank and since he had not paid back, the car was still hypothecated. ``As such, Jena could not have sold the vehicle to Sadhu Yadav, who, in turn, could have sold it to Jha,'' the FIR said, adding Jena had claimed that he had given the car to Yadav for a few days for use but he ``virtually usurped'' it.

The then district transport officer of Patna Brij Raj Rai, who is also an accused in the case and was arrested, has been charged with antedating falsified documents on June 18, 2006 to show the sale by Yadav to Jha on June 18, 2004. The flood relief scam case relates to swindling of over Rs 17 crore meant for providing succour to victims of north. PTI

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Sadhu Yadav surrenders finally

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