Patna: Fresh from his acquittal in the fodder scam case in which RJD chief Lalu Prasad was convicted, former chief minister Jaganath Mishra has accused the CBI of framing him for actions he did not take.

Mishra, in a letter to media houses on Monday, said that he had drawn the attention towards the scam on the floor of the Bihar Assembly in 1993, before the scam surfaced.

He claimed the CBI had distorted facts to tarnish his image. He cited the CBI's accusing him of granting scam kingpin S.B. Sinha extension in service and promoting another accused Ram Raj Ram to the post of additional director, animal husbandry department. Mishra pointed out that documents supplied by the CBI itself show that "I was not the chief minister on 23.9.88 when the notification was issued" for Ram's promotion.

He alleged that the CBI had played mischief by declaring it as a typing error.

Mishra maintained that Lalu as chief minister did not extend the service of Sinha solely on the basis of his (Mishra's) recommendation letter. He said that the vigilance department had maintained that there was no charge against Sinha and the animal husbandry department had written that Sinha had good moral character.

Mishra maintained that his recommendation letter was "neither irregular or motivated".

"Recommendations made by the politicians have no mandatory influence over the government," Mishra wrote in the letter. "....The story of nexus between Lalu Prasad and myself is absolutely baseless."

Mishra wrote that a number of other politicians had written in favour of animal husbandry officials and were not charge-sheeted by the CBI:

"...for malafide reason, I was picked up and only on the basis of such recommendation, and have been made accused in three cases till date."

He alleged that he had flagged excess withdrawal much before Sushil Kumar Modi and that the CBI "was bent upon... refurbishing" Modi's image. He said there was no Assembly session on 25.6.93, the day CBI says Modi raised the scam in the House.