Fodder Scam: Supreme Court turns down Lalu Prasad's plea to change judge

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has rejected a plea by former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad to change the judge trying a fodder scam case, a decision that could bode ill for the former union minister and RashrtriyaJanataDal (RJD) supremo.

Lalu had alleged that the CBI special judge in Ranchi hearing the case was distantly related to a minister in his arch-rival Nitish Kumar’s cabinet and therefore could not be expected to deliver a fair verdict.

Yadav, to buttress his argument, had said that the younger sister of the judge was married to a person who was the cousin of a minister in the Bihar government and even produced photographs showing her with the chief minister at a function. But a three judge bench of the SC led by Chief Justice P Sathasivam rejected his pleas as unfounded.

“Merely because some of the distantly related members were in the midst of the chief minister it cannot be presumed that the presiding judge would conclude against the appellant,” the court said.