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Lalu, Rabri plead for dismissal of petition

PATNA: Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and former Chief Minister of Bihar Rabri Devi on Monday pleaded before the Patna High Court for the dismissal of the State government’s petition challenging their acquittal in the disproportionate assets case maintaining that the CBI had not investigated the case at all.

Countering the claims of the government, senior Supreme Court lawyer Ram Jethmalani argued that the CBI had filed a case of DA against Mr. Prasad and his wife on August 18, 1998 without any preliminary investigation.

Mr. Jethmalani buttressed his conclusion pointing out that the then CBI DSP R.K. Kharagwal in his deposition before the CBI special court had denied that he had conducted any preliminary investigation in the matter as shown by the CBI and said that he had no knowledge about the case. Mr. Kharagwal was surprised to find his name as informant in the case.

Mr. Jethmalani contended that the DA case was a false one in the light of the fact that it had never been investigated. “As without evidence this case was proceeded against Mr. Prasad and Mrs. Devi which was rightly dealt with by the trial court and acquitted them.”

He also found fault with the investigating agency as regards assessing their income. He said that the CBI never investigated their income or their source of income. The CBI was not known to have visited their cowshed and had wrongly imputed their earnings from bonds purchased prior to the check period and showing loans as earnings.

Against this backdrop the trial court rightly had accepted the findings of the Income Tax Tribunal regarding their income, he told the court.

Even in the assessment of their property the CBI had relied on rates prevailing in Delhi without going to the prevailing prices in Bihar where labour and construction materials were much cheaper, which contention the IT officials took into account.

Moreover, the CBI was not sure about the money that had been amassed above the known sources of the couple. It was first put at Rs. 46 lakh which was reduced to Rs. 36 lakh. The worst was that now the State government itself was assessing it at Rs. 35 lakh.

Mr. Jethmalani urged the bench of Mr. Justice R.K. Datta to dismiss the petition underlining that nobody knew what the figure actually was and charged that the petition had been filed out of political vendetta. He said that the trial court verdict should be accepted as the final verdict.

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