PATNA, July 7: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today told the Patna High Court (HC) that it would not delay ``even for a minute'' arrests of senior politicians in the fodder scam, including Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, provided the Bihar Government gave an undertaking to ensure security of agency officials and maintenance of law and order.

The Court, taking serious note of the CBI's ``threat perception'' in an affidavit, asked the state Government to reply to a three-point query submitted by the agency's counsel Rakesh Kumar.

Terming the issue as ``very sensitive'', a Division Bench, comprising Justices SN Jha and SJ Mukhopadhyay, said they would like to have the Government's reply to the queries.

The agency sought to know through the Court if the Bihar Government apprehended serious law and order problem following such arrests, and, if yes, whether it would be able to maintain law and order and ensure that ``no harm is done to CBI personnel''.

The CBI counsel said, if the State Government came forward with an undertaking that law and order would be maintained and no harm would be done to the property of CBI personnel, the agency would not delay the arrests ``even for a minute''.

He said, the Supreme Court (SC) in its order on November 5, 1996, had said ``It is needless to further emphasise that the exercise has to be performed objectively and fairly, mindful of the fact that the majesty of law has to be upheld and the rule of law preserved, which does not discriminate between individuals on the basis of their status, position or power.''

``The law treats everyone as equal before it and this has to be kept in view constantly in every state of action to avoid violation of the right to equality guaranteed in Article 14 of the Constitution,'' he said.

Kumar urged the HC to issue direction to the State Government or any other authority under the Central Government to ensure that no harm would be done to CBI personnel in the event of arrest of political leaders.

The CBI counsel also submitted a photograph displaying activists of a particular party moving with spears and swords in the prohibited area near Raj Bhavan on June 24, 1996.

The Court asked the CBI to simultaneously approach the State and Central Governments on the matter.

It warned that the Director of the CBI would be held ``responsible and accountable'' if any ``dilly-dallying'' approach was found on the part of the investigating agency in arresting politicians allegedly involved in the scam.

The HC warning came when the counsel for the petitioner, Ravishankar Prasad, charged the CBI with having adopted ``two yardsticks'' in the case of arrest of accused persons, including politicians in the multi-crore fraud.

``May be, there are one or two top political executives in the State in whose case certain aspects have to be looked into. But what attempts are made by the CBI to arrest the rest including a former Union Minister, C P Verma, already chargesheeted in the scam,'' he asked.

The Court also asked Ajay Tripathy, the counsel for the Central Government, to report to it by Friday the progress made with respect to according sanction for prosecution of five senior IAS officials and an Income-Tax official.

The Central investigative agency has already submitted charge-sheet against them in the scam.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.