HC adjourns hearing of govt plea against Lalu's acquittal

The Patna High Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing of Bihar government's petition challenging the acquittal of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and his wife and Former Chief Minister Rabri Devi in a disproportionate assets case, an offshoot of the multi-crore rupees fodder scam.

Justice R K Dutta adjourned the hearing till tomorrow at the request of Special Public Prosecutor Akhileshwar Prasad Singh, who was recently appointed by the Nitish Kumar government to handle the case.

Singh sought time till Thursday saying that senior advocate of the Supreme Court Harish Salve would place his arguments before the court. Bihar's National Democratic Alliance government had on February 19 challenged the December 18 acquittal of Lalu and Rabri in the case registered by the CBI seven years ago.

In his order, the special CBI court judge (now retired) Munilal Paswan had acquitted the duo of all charges.

The acquittal of Lalu, also the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief, had come as a big relief to the United Progressive Alliance government at the centre, which is under opposition fire on the tainted ministers issue.

The DA case charged Lalu with amassing property worth Rs 46 lakhs beyond his known sources of income between 1990 and 1997 as Bihar Chief Minister. Rabri Devi was accused of abetting her husband.