NEW DELHI, May 9: Janata Dal working president Sharad Yadav has equated CBI Director Joginder Singh with an ``SHO of Tughlaq Road going berserk''.

Calling Singh a police inspector, Yadav said there was a conspiracy involving the CBI at the root of the fodder scam declaration involving Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav. ``I want to get at the truth of this,'' he said.

Appearing in Sunday's Janata ki Adalat on Star Plus, Yadav also questioned the propriety of the head of the CBI, which is ``an arm of the executive'', opening its office on a Sunday, making public all the names of those involved in the scam, and then calling the media. ``That too correspondents from Doordarshan, not Zee TV or Star TV,'' said Yadav.

He was also critical of Joginder Singh's affidavit in Patna, then statement in Calcutta that he would need time to study the 2,000-page report. ``On April 24, he said this. But in the flight from Calcutta to Delhi, he managed to read the report, didn't sleep overnight, and was ready on April 25 to announce the results to the world?'' asked Yadav, sarcastically.``How did the report reach Atalji (BJP leader Atal Behari Vajpayee)?'' he added.

Yadav also let it drop that though the United Front leaders had asked former prime minister H D Deve Gowda to step down at 11 am on April 11, at 3 pm, they asked him to stay on. Yadav also denied differences with Laloo Prasad Yadav, repeating the latter's declaration that ``Sharad Yadav is like my elder brother''.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.