Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, a special court in Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior recently issued a permanent arrest warrant against former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in a matter related to the alleged illegal purchase of arms and ammunition in 1995-97.
Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) of the special court established to take up cases on MPs and MLAs, Mahendra Saini issued the permanent warrant against former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Yadav.
Special public prosecutor Abhishek Mehrotra said that the case of 1995-97 relates to arms being purchased from an authorized dealer in Madhya Pradesh by using fake documents. He added that there were 23 accused in the case, which was lodged at Inderganj police station and all have been chargesheeted. He mentioned that among all the accused Yadav has been declared an absconder.
According to the prosecution, the permanent arrest warrant was issued as no one appeared in the court on behalf of the RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav. Reportedly, Jabalpur-based MP High Court lawyer Rakesh Pandey said a permanent arrest warrant is issued after the bailable, arrest or non-bailable arrest warrants are served but the person did not present himself before the court.
He added that under bailable and arrest warrants, the court sets the time for the accused to appear before it after serving orders to them. He further mentioned that it is not in the case of a permanent arrest warrant and that the accused has to be produced in the court when arrested.
As per the chargesheet, Rajkumar Sharma, the operator of a firm in Mahoba, Uttar Pradesh, purchased arms and cartridges from three arms firms of Gwalior between 1995 and 1997 and took them to Bihar and sold them.
Former CM Lalu Prasad Yadav was also among those who bought these weapons in Bihar. The police filed a charge sheet in the court in July 1998. Nonetheless, earlier in April 1998, the absconding panchnama of Lalu Prasad Yadav was prepared in which his father’s name was mentioned as Kundrika Singh. Whereas, the name of the father of former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav is Kundan Rai.
Lalu Prasad Yadav, who was convicted and jailed in the fodder scam in Bihar, was released on bail in April 2021.