PATNA, Dec 10: The Patna High Court today reserved till tomorrow the order on former chief minister Laloo Prasa Yadav's plea for regular bail in a conspiracy angle case of the fodder scam.

Justrice P K Sarin of the court reserved his order after two-day-long arguments by counsel for the former chief minister and the prosecuting agency, the CBI.

Of the four cases, Yadav has already secured bail in three and moved the high court in the fourth one against the special court order rejecting his prayer for bail.

The case relates to fraudulent withdrawals of more than Rs 37 crore from the Chaibasa treasury by officials of the animal husbandry department.

The CBI has already chargesheeted the former CM in the case after obtaining sanction from Governor A R Kidwai. Yadav is lodged in judicial custody ever since he had surrendered on July 30 before designated CBI judge S K Lal, following arrest warrant against him in connection with the case.

Strongly opposing the bail prayer of Yadav, CBI standing counsel V K Shukla, had charged the former chief minister ``with wilful negligence of duty and having given patronage to the scamsters''.

``Yadav, who also held the finance portfolio did not take any action against them (the scamsters) despite having the knowledge of the fraudulent withdrawals from different treasuries,'' Shukla said. To substantiate his point, Shukla said the reports of the CAG and the tenth Finance Commission highlighting the excessive withdrawals were placed before Yadav when he was in office but no action was taken by him.

``The Supreme Court has already rejected Laloo's plea for anticipatory bail in the case and therefore, his plea for regular bail should not be allowed as the governor had also sanctioned the prosecutiion of Yadav,'' he added.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.