By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Monday deferred hearing on two petitions challenging the Bihar government’s power to appeal against Railway Minister Lalu Prasad’s acquittal in a corruption case by a trial court.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice R.V. Raveendran deferred the hearing saying the Bihar government had only moved the Patna High Court for its permission to file an appeal against the trial court’s judgement acquitting the railway minister and his wife Rabri Devi, both former chief ministers of Bihar.
The high court is yet to give its permission to the state government to approach it against their acquittal, the bench pointed out and deferred the hearing on the petitions, saying it will keep them pending.
Both Lalu Prasad and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had approached the apex court, challenging the Bihar government’s authority to go in an appeal against the acquittal.
Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi were acquitted of all charges in a seven-year-old disproportionate assets case by Special CBI Judge Muni Lal Paswan.
Immediately after the judgement, the Bihar government had said that it would appeal on its own if the CBI failed to do so.
Lalu Prasad had been accused by the CBI of amassing property worth Rs.4.6 million, well above his known sources of income, between 1990 and 1997 during his tenure as Bihar chief minister while his wife was charged with abetting the alleged crime.
The case was an offshoot of alleged irregularities in the state’s purchase of fodder, known as the fodder scam.