Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath on Wednesday ordered an investigation into allegations that the district magistrate and a sub-divisional magistrate of Jalaun district had called Justice Shivpal Singh in an attempt to influence his judgment in a fodder scam case, The Indian Express reported on Thursday.
Singh is presiding over a special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation that is hearing the fodder scam case. On January 6, the court sentenced Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav to three years and six months in jail in the case. It is expected to pronounce its judgment in another of the six fodder scam cases on January 24.
“There were reports in the media about alleged calls made by the DM and SDM of Jalaun to a judge of a special CBI court,” Adityanath’s media adviser Mrityunjay Kumar was quoted as saying. “The chief minister has asked the divisional commissioner of Jhansi [Amit Gupta] to inquire into the allegations and submit a report.”
District Magistrate Mannan Akhtar and Sub-Divisional Magistrate Bhairpal Singh have denied the allegations. “I never made any call to the judge either from my personal or my official number,” Akhtar told The Indian Express. “I have been here just for four months and he [Justice Singh] had come to meet us in November in connection with his land dispute in the district. Nothing else was discussed.”
Fodder scam
The case is connected with the alleged fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 84.5 lakh from the Deoghar district treasury between 1994 and 1996 when Yadav was Bihar’s chief minister.
The scam – exposed in 1996 – involved around Rs 1,000 crore being embezzled from the state exchequer to purchase fictitious medicines and fodder for cattle between 1990 and 1997.
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