Patna, Aug. 29: A special CBI court in Patna today could not frame charges against 34 persons, including former chief ministers Lalu Prasad and Jagannath Mishra, in the multi-crore fodder scam case.

Seven of the accused, including Lalu and Mishra, moved a petition praying that they be allowed to challenge in Patna High Court the CBI court’s August 18 order rejecting their discharge petitions in the case.

The discharge petitions filed by Lalu and others had been pending since February 2, 2004 and had been heard by five judges so far.

Additional special CBI judge Vijay Kumar Jain fixed the next date of hearing on September 21 for framing charges and directed all the accused to remain physically present in the court on that day.

Accused whose discharge petitions had been rejected on August 18 are Lalu Prasad, Jagannath Mishra, former RJD MP Ravindra Kumar Rana, Jahanabad MP and former chairman public accounts committee of Bihar Jagdish Sharma, former animal husbandry department minister Vidya Sagar Nishad, former animal husbandry department secretary K. Armugam and six others. The seven accused, including Lalu and Mishra, R.K. Rana, Jagdish Sharma and former income tax commissioner Adip Chandra Choudhary, sought time from the special CBI court to move the high court for filing petitions against the order of the court on discharge petitions.

All the 34 accused persons were physically present in the court today.

Lalu was the last accused to enter the court room at 11.40am. He sat on a bench and inquired from his lawyer Chitranjan Sinha and Anup Kumar Sinha whether they had inform the court that a petition in the high court was being filed against the order dated August 18. The lawyers told him that court had been informed about it. After that Lalu left the court at 11.45am with the court’s permission.