No Appeal Against Lalu-Rabri Verdict: Law Ministry
New Delhi: Mar. 5, 2007
As widely anticipated, the Union Law Ministry on Monday denied permission to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to appeal an earlier lower court judgment against Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in the Disproportionate Asset (DA) case saying there was no real basis for appeal as the Patna court had delivered the verdict only after carefully examining the case from each angle.
“Documents submitted during the course of investigation by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief and his wife and former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi were satisfactory to the court overseeing the DA case and therefore, there was no compelling reason for the CBI to appeal the court’s decision,” the Law Ministry told the CBI, it was learnt.
The Railway Minister had been accused of amassing wealth over Rs. 46 lakh disproportionate to his known sources of income during his tenure as the Chief Minister of Bihar between 1990 and 97.
His wife and successor Rabri Devi was charged with aiding and abetting her husband.
Both were exonerated by a special CBI court judge Munilal Paswan in Patna last December.
On Feb. 19, the state government filed an appeal in the Patna High Court challenging the acquittal of the Yadavs saying the special CBI judge ignored some very vital evidences against the accused.
|
