Wednesday, April 27 2005 16:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Ranchi: A Special CBI court hearing the multi-crore fodder scam today (Apr 27, 2005) rejected the discharge petition of Railway Minister Laloo Prasad and nine others in connection with "fraudulent" withdrawal of Rs 3.31 crore from Dumka treasury.

CBI special judge Sanjay Prasad dismissed the discharge petition filed on Monday (Apr 25, 2005) by Laloo Prasad. The court has directed Laloo Prasad to appear before it on May 17.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo, who was allowed to be represented by his counsel in the RC 38 (a) 96 case, had on Monday appeared before another CBI Court, which had framed charges in the RC 68,96 case pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37 crore from Chaibasa treasury.

Both the treasuries are in Jharkhand now. Besides Laloo Prasad, the court also dismissed discharge petitions filed by ten others in the RC (a)/96 case which involved, in all, 41 accused.

Some prominent persons whose petition the court dismissed are, former Bihar Chief Minister Jaganath Mishra, Bihar MLA Jagdish Prasad Sharma, political leader R K Rana and two bureaucrats, CBI special public prosecutor Rakesh Prasad said in Ranchi.