Why Nitish should not be charged in fodder scam: HC asks CBI to explain

Patna,(BiharTimes): The single bench of Justice R R Prasad of Jharkhand High Court on Friday directed the CBI to file a counter-affidavit on a writ seeking to make Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Janata Dal (United) Rajya Sabha MP, Shivanand Tiwari, accused in the Rs 950 crore fodder scam.
The Court asked the CBI to explain why Nitish and Shivanand should not be charged as accused in the scam. It fixed November 22 to hear the case.

It needs to be recalled that the direction comes after Mithilesh Kumar Singh filed a public interest litigation urging the court to make Nitish and Shivanand as accused in the fodder scam as they had allegedly been paid money.

Singh moved the high court after a lower court rejected his Public Interest Litigation about three months back. In his PIL he charged that there was allegation that Nitish and Shivanand, along with Lalu Prasad Yadav, were involved in the scam.

The CBI had then revealed that there was evidence against both Nitish and Tiwary. The agency claimed Shyam Bihari Sinha, the kingpin of the fodder scam case, paid Rs 1.4 crore to Nitish Kumar during elections and Rs 5 lakh to Tiwary for his daughter’s wedding.

CBI SP Javed Ahmed had also filed an affidavit before Patna High Court, alleging that Nitish was involved in the fodder scam case. However, the CBI chose not to pursue the matter.

Incidentally, the high court direction comes four days after a special CBI court in Ranchi set September 30 as the date to deliver judgement against 45 accused, including RJD chief Lalu Prasad, in the case related to alleged fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore from Chaibasa Treasury in the early 1990s.