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The governor's been misled, charges Laloo

High drama continued in the Bihar capital on Wednesday as Central Bureau of Investigation Special Director D R Karthikeyan arrived to help give final shape to the chargesheet against Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, who for his part requested state Governor A R Kidwai to enquire into the "fraud perpetrated by the CBI in acquiring the governor's sanction for prosecution", and the state administration sounded a red alert in anticipation of clashes between supporters and opponents of the beleagured chief minister.

CBI sources said the chargesheet will be fine-tuned by senior officials including Karthikeyen and will be filed in the special court within the next couple of days under case number 20 (A/96), naming Laloo Prasad Yadav and others in the Rs 95 million fodder scam.

Sources also indicated that there would be a series of raids at residences of those suspected of involvement and/or complicity in the scam.

The CBI team led by Joint Director (East) U N Biswas has been holding a series of discussions with Karthikeyan in connection with the chargesheet that names Laloo Prasad Yadav and 55 others as accused in the fodder scam. Twelve chargesheets have thus far been filed in the courts and three legislators, three senior IAS officers, one former director of the animal husbandry department and a host of other department officials and suppliers are in jail.

The incarcerated legislators are Dhruv Bhagat of the BJP, Jagdish Sharma of the Congress and R K Rana of the Janata Dal, while the three IAS officers are K Arumugam, Mahesh Prasad and Beck Julius.

The top political leaders who figure in the list of accused include, besides Laloo Prasad Yadav, federal Minister Chandradev Prasad Verma, State Animal Husbandry Minister Bhola Ram Toofani, State Labour Minister Viya Sagar, and former state chief minister Dr Jagannath Mishra.

On Wednesday morning, Income Tax Commissioner A C Chowdhary was produced before the designated court in connection with the same case and has been remanded to CBI custody by special judge S K Lal.

Laloo Prasad Yadav, meanwhile, had a meeting with Governor Kidwai and subsequently told the media, "I will retire from public life if it can be proved that the attorney-general has given his assent for prosecution." The Janata Dal president claimed to be in possession of definite information that the governor had been misled by the CBI in this regard. However, Yadav added in the next breath that he would not resign his chief ministership at any cost and that he would fight the "political conspirators" to the very end.

Ten JD MPs, including federal ministers Kanti Singh and Jai Narayan Nishad, held a meeting in the capital and later expressed their "unflinching support and full faith in the leadership of Laloo Yadav". Analysts indicate that all eyes are now turned to Thursday's meeting of Janata Dal legislators in the state.

Meanwhile, the state administration has alerted all senior police officials throughout the state of the possibility of violence between groups supportive of, and opposed to, embattled chief minister Laloo Yadav. JD activists on Wednesday paralysed road traffic in several areas in the state capital and the apprehension of imminent violence was given a further fillip when CPM National Secretary Vinod Mishra announced that if Laloo Prasad Yadav did not resign office within the next 10 days his party would "paralyse the government machinery in the state".

Senior police officials indicate that the law and order machinery has consequently been put on a state of full alert.

It is leart, meanwhile, that Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral spoke to Laloo Prasad Yadav over the telephone this afternoon before his departure for an official three-day tour of Rajasthan. The details of the discussion between the PM and the JD president are not known yet.

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