Saturday, September 24 2005 16:02 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Garwah (Jharkhand): The counsels of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad today (Sept 24, 2005) took a certified copy of a FIR from a local court filed against the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo for alleged violation of the model code of conduct here in January during the Jharkhand assembly polls this year.

The FIR was lodged on January 29 at the Garwah police station alleging that the helicopter flying Yadav, the RJD Chief, landed near the site of his election meeting instead of the helipad.

The counsels, Chittaranjan Sinha of Patna High Court and Prabhat Kumar of Ranchi High Court, told newsmen that they would study the document obtained from the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM).

It was reported in a section of the media on Thursday (Sept 22, 2005) that an arrest warrant had been issued against Yadav, the RJD Chief, in the case.

According to the certified copy, "The CJM had asked the police to submit a chargesheet, but till date there was none filed by the police nor had the court issued summons to Yadav," the counsels, accompanied by RJD's Jharkhand MLAs Girinath Singh and Ramchandra Chandravanshi, said. The MLAs alleged that Lalu Prasad's increasing popularity ahead of Bihar polls has worried the opposition who were out to 'defame' their leader with 'cheap politics'.

Deputy Superintendent of Police, Mritinjay Choudhury, had on Thursday said an investigation into the alleged violation of the model code of conduct by him during the Jharkhand polls, was complete and that it had been decided to submit the report to the CJM at Garwah.