Ranchi: A special CBI court on Wednesday recalled an arrest warrant issued against a national spokesperson of the Congress after he moved high court and obtained a stay on the contempt of court case filed against him.

The special CBI court of Shivpal Singh recalled the warrant it had issued against the Congress's Manish Tiwary, along with Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and RJD leader Shivanand Tiwari.

The CBI court initiated contempt of court proceedings against the leaders for allegedly questioning its December 23, 2017 judgment in fodder case RC 64A/96 by claiming that the quantum of sentence on former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad was influenced by caste considerations.

But the Congress's Tiwary had challenged the contempt of court proceedings against him before Jharkhand High Court which stayed the order on January 12.

Similarly, Tejashwi, Raghuvansh Prasad and Shivanand also approached the high court on January 17 and got the order against them stayed on February 2.

But sources revealed that except for Tiwary, the special CBI court had recalled its warrants against the others on February 8 within three hours of their issuance.

CBI lawyer Rakesh Prasad attributed the CBI court's decision to possible delays in the high court order reaching it.

"Whenever high court takes any decision in a case related to a lower court, it informs the lower court about the order passed. In this case, it is possible that when the lower court issued the arrest warrant it might not have received the high court order," he said.

Senior lawyer Prabhat Kumar, who is representing the three RJD leaders, said the high court would hear their case on March 9.

"The high court has asked the CBI and the state government to file an affidavit explaining whether the leaders had made any objectionable statements or not," he said.

Lalu at hearing

Incarcerated RJD chief Lalu Prasad appeared before the CBI court of Pradeep Kumar on Wednesday for a hearing on fodder case RC 47A/96 pertaining to misappropriation of Rs 139.35 crore from Doranda treasury.

A record keeper of the Delhi transport department recorded his statement before the court on behalf of the CBI.

CBI counsel B.M.P. Singh asked him about registration numbers of some vehicles allegedly used for the transportation of fodder.