In a major setback to Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Yadav, the Supreme Court held that he has to face separate trial in each of the cases in which he is an accused in the multi-crore fodder scam and if found guilty, he may be punished separately.
The apex court set aside the order of Jharkhand high court discharging Yadav in the case pertaining to Deoghar treasury, where an amount to the tune of Rs 85 lakh was misappropriated with the help of 250 vouchers and 17 fake allotment letters between period 1991 to 1994 and directed the trial court to conclude the proceedings in nine months from now.
Besides the RJD supremo, there are 37 other accused persons in the case.
The apex court also quashed the high court order against former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra and ex-chief secretary of Jharkhand Sajal Chakraborty against whom the proceedings were stayed on the same ground.
While brushing aside their contentions that they cannot be tried separately for each of the cases having similar facts and circumstances, the bench said, "The modus operandi being the same would not make it a single offence when the offences are separate".
"Commission of offence pursuant to a conspiracy has to be punished. If conspiracy is furthered into several distinct offences, there have to be separate trials," a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy said.
"In case there is only one trial for such conspiracy for separate offences, it would enable the accused person to go scotfree and commit number of offences which is not the intendment of law.
"The concept is of 'same offence' under Article 20(2) and section 300 CrPC. In case distinct offences are being committed, there has to be independent trial for each of such offence based on such conspiracy, and in the case of misappropriation as statutorily mandated, there should not be joinder of charges in one trial for more than one year except as provided in section 219," said Justice Mishra, who penned down the judgement for the bench.
Article referred: http://www.rediff.com/news/report/lalu-to-face-trial-in-fodder-scam-case-says-sc/20170508.htm
The apex court set aside the order of Jharkhand high court discharging Yadav in the case pertaining to Deoghar treasury, where an amount to the tune of Rs 85 lakh was misappropriated with the help of 250 vouchers and 17 fake allotment letters between period 1991 to 1994 and directed the trial court to conclude the proceedings in nine months from now.
Besides the RJD supremo, there are 37 other accused persons in the case.
The apex court also quashed the high court order against former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra and ex-chief secretary of Jharkhand Sajal Chakraborty against whom the proceedings were stayed on the same ground.
While brushing aside their contentions that they cannot be tried separately for each of the cases having similar facts and circumstances, the bench said, "The modus operandi being the same would not make it a single offence when the offences are separate".
"Commission of offence pursuant to a conspiracy has to be punished. If conspiracy is furthered into several distinct offences, there have to be separate trials," a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy said.
"In case there is only one trial for such conspiracy for separate offences, it would enable the accused person to go scotfree and commit number of offences which is not the intendment of law.
"The concept is of 'same offence' under Article 20(2) and section 300 CrPC. In case distinct offences are being committed, there has to be independent trial for each of such offence based on such conspiracy, and in the case of misappropriation as statutorily mandated, there should not be joinder of charges in one trial for more than one year except as provided in section 219," said Justice Mishra, who penned down the judgement for the bench.
Article referred: http://www.rediff.com/news/report/lalu-to-face-trial-in-fodder-scam-case-says-sc/20170508.htm
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