Shahi in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, June 25: Education minister P.K. Shahi today contested RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s appeal in Jharkhand High Court seeking transfer of a fodder scam case but admitted his “distant relationship” with the CBI court judge, Pravas Kumar Singh, hearing the case.

“Singh is our distant relative but our families do not call on each other,” Shahi told reporters here. “We have not met each other in the past two/three years,” he said.

The RJD boss is learnt to have presented a genealogical table and voters’ list suggesting Shahi is the first cousin of Singh’s wife. “One cannot expect justice from the (CBI) court which shares a relationship with the petitioner’s counsel,” Lalu has stated in his case transfer application.

The CBI court, Ranchi, has fixed July 15 as the date for pronouncing verdict in the fodder scam case (RC-20A/96) related to fraudulent withdrawal of over Rs 37 crore from the Chaibasa treasury in Jharkhand now.

Shahi was the counsel of the JD(U) MP from Munger, Lallan Singh, a petitioner against Lalu and other accused persons in the CBI case (RC-20A/96). Two senior JD(U) leaders, including the party MP from Jehanabad, Jagdish Sharma, and former chief minister Jagannath Mishra were also chargesheeted in the case.

Sharma and Mishra refused to comment on the plea that the “matter was sub-judice” but they are believed to be tacitly backing Lalu’s petition.

Shahi, a key minister in the government of Nitish Kumar, said: “In the genealogical chart given by Lalu, Singh (the CBI judge) happens to be in relation with my grandfather’s step brother.” Shahi said his grandfather was one among four brothers, including a stepbrother, and Singh’s wife was related to the stepbrother of his grandfather.

Shahi, who has contested the case against Lalu as a lawyer, argued the RJD chief was using all the tricks to influence the verdict in the case.

A senior lawyer of Patna High Court, Yogesh Chandra Verma, told The Telegraph: “The CrPC Section 407 stipulates that the respondent concerned can file a petition at the session’s court or high court seeking transfer of a case to another court in case of his reasonable apprehension about the relationship between the judge and the counsel or petitioner that might affect the verdict.”