Rubbishing allegations of ‘references’ levied by CBI court judge Shivpal Singh against RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in the fodder scam case, Jalaun District Magistrate (DM) Mannan Akhtar said:
I never spoke to CBI Special Judge Shivpal Singh over phone. I have been here (Jalaun) just for four months and he had come to meet us in November in connection with his land dispute in the district. Nothing else was discussed. How can someone level such serious allegations without any evidence? I belong to Assam and am working in Uttar Pradesh. I have no connection of any kind with Laluji.
Reports in a section of the media have alleged that District Magistrate (DM) Mannan Akhtar and Sub-Divisional Magistrate Bhairpal Singh of Jalaun had called up CBI Special Judge Shivpal Singh to seek favours for the RJD chief in the fodder scam case.
During the proceedings of the case in Ranchi on 4 January, the CBI judge had also stated "Laluji, we are getting a lot of references and calls for you" without naming the people who had called him up.
Taking cognisance of the reports that have emerged, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday, 11 January, ordered the Jhansi division to carry out a probe into the allegations and submit a report at the earliest.
Yadav was awarded a sentence of three and a half years in jail and a fine of Rs 5 lakh, on 6 January following his conviction in the fodder scam case.
(With inputs from PTI)
(This story has been updated)
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