Ranchi, July 14: Lalu Yadav today denied he was under any pressure to ensure his son Tejashwi Yadav resigned as deputy chief minister of Bihar over corruption charges.
" Tejashwi ko aap jitaye ka? Nitish ka pressure aap par hoga ham par nahin (Have you got Tejashwi elected? You may be under pressure from Nitish, not me)," Lalu shouted back when reporters asked him about the fate of the RJD's tie-up with the JDU in the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government.
Lalu, who was in Ranchi since yesterday for fodder scam case hearings at a local CBI court, left for Bihar this evening. He is scheduled to return to Ranchi again next week to appear for more hearings.
A close aide of Lalu admitted the RJD boss has been irritable over the last few weeks. "For the last two days, he has been evading the media which has been hounding him with the same question. Apart from the CBI FIRs against him, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi, he is having to travel to Ranchi almost every alternate day for fodder case hearings," he explained.
Today, Lalu and his lawyers remained busy with court proceedings to record statements of two of his witnesses, Rampani Singh and Gunjan Kumar, in cases RC 64A/96 and RC 68A/96 that are being heard before Shivpal Singh and S.S. Prasad respectively.
He also appeared before the court of Pradeep Kumar, who is hearing case RC 47(A)/96. CBI lawyer B.M.P. Singh questioned both.
Rampani, who is from Danapur, claimed he knew Lalu since 1974 during his student days. And that he has been visiting his house in Patna regularly during Holi, Diwali and Chhath, besides attending his Iftar parties.
CBI's Singh asked Gunjan Kumar, a former travel agent now sales manager at GoAir, how many times he had organised air tickets for him and his family. But, he could not provide specific details.
"Material and legal value of the statements of the two witnesses will be ascertained during cross examination. It is for the court to decide. At this moment I can only say that the CBI has built a strong case with a mountain of evidence," said Singh.
