Moment of truth for Lalu, Manu

NEW DELHI: Verdict on two high-profile cases, each intertwined with the fate of two prominent personalities, is likely to be pronounced on Monday. While the Delhi High Court is scheduled to give its ruling on the revision petition filed by Delhi Police against the acquittal of the nine accused in the Jessica Lal murder case, including Manu Sharma, son for former Haryana power and PWD minister Venod Sharma, a designated CBI court in Patna may well script railway minister Lalu Prasad’s political destiny on Monday by delivering its verdict in the DA case.

Both the cases have already claimed political victims. Venod Sharma had to resign from the state Cabinet in October this year following revelations that he used his clout to force witnesses in the Jessica murder case to change their testimonies.

Similarly, Lalu had to quit Bihar CM’s post in July 1997 after a court issued arrest warrant against him in one of the cases relating to the fodder scam. The DA case is a spin-off of the main fodder scam.

Designated CBI judge Muni Lal Paswan had fixed December 18 as the date for pronouncing the judgement in the DA case, after the CBI and the defence counsel concluded their arguments on December 4. If Lalu and his wife emerge unscathed, their political clout sure will go up immensely.

Having been unburdened of the DA charges, the husband-wife duo is certain to go hammer and tongs against Nitish Kumar government in Bihar. The NDA, on its part, is certain to bear pressure on the Centre to ask the CBI to file a revision petition in the Patna High Court — a stance Lalu and his backers in the “secular” alliance will resist.

For the CBI, it’ll be a peculiar situation. It had registered the case against Lalu on August 19, 1998, arguing that he had accumulated assets of over Rs 46 lakh, disproportionate to his known sources of income, between March 1990 and March 1997 as Bihar Chief Minister — a charge rejected by the defence, which contended that the assets were all accounted for.

While 94 witnesses, including Brigadier RP Nautial, ex-director general of CRPF AP Dorai and former Speaker late Radhanandan Jha, were presented for the defence, a total of 132 people, including former CBI SP of Patna, VSK Kaumudi, deposed for the prosecution.

The FIR in the case was registered by Mr Kaumudi under the Prevention of Corruption Act, and the chargesheet was filed against Lalu on April 4, 2000 for allegedly possessing assets worth Rs 46,26,820, which was said to be disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Lalu’s wife, Rabri Devi’s name cropped up when it was included in the chargesheet for abetting the offence under Section 109 IPC read with Section 13(1)(e) of Prevention of Corruption Act. Charges against the husband-wife duo were framed on June 9, 2000.

Apart from the DA case, the RJD chief’s name figures in as many as six cases of the multi-crore fodder scam, estimated to run into more than Rs 900 crore. Out of these, one case is pending with the CBI court here, while the rest were transferred to the court of special CBI judges at Ranchi since the place of occurrence of offences was within the territory of Jharkhand.