CBI seeks sanction in fresh case

patna: in yet another development in the fodder scam cases, the cbi has sought sanction from bihar governor vinod pande to prosecute former chief minister laloo yadav and others in a fresh case — rc-63 a/96, which is the sixth and last conspiracy-angle case of the rs 1,153 crore fodder scam. the governor's sanction to prosecute laloo, another former cm jagannath mishra, three former animal husbandry ministers and four senior bureaucrats including three former animal husbandry secretaries in the sixth case was sought on thursday, a day before the apex court ordered transfer of 36 cases to jharkhand.rc-63 a involves fraudulent withdrawal of about rs 42 lakh from the bhagalpur treasury by the animal husbandry mafia during 1994-96. sixty-three persons figure in the chargesheet. they include former ah ministers vidya sagar nishad, chandradev prasad verma, former ah secretaries k arumugam, mahesh prasad and beck julius, former finance and development commissioner phool chand singh and former chairman of public accounts committee dhruv bhagat. former animal husbandry minister bhola ram toofani, who died about two years back, figues in the second column of the chargesheet along with the alleged kingpin of the scam, shyam bihari sinha. however, both of them had to suffer imprisonment during their life time for several months for their alleged involvement in the multi-crore scam. although the names of former chairman of the central board of direct taxes (cbdt) n r shivaswamy and senior indian revenue service officials rajnish kumar and j p kureel figured in the final report of the case, their names do not figure in the chargesheet. the name of former commissioner of income-tax, ranchi, figures in it. the agency is, however, learnt to have recommended major penalty action against both kumar and kureel. kumar is at present posted in kerala as commissioner of income- tax while kureel is posted in patna as additional commissioner. with this the investigating agency has completed its investigation in all the six conspiracy angle cases. (sachchidatoi@indiatimes.com)