The raid followed filing of the case in the court of CBI designated judge S K Lal as an offshoot of the fodder scam in which Yadav is one of the main accused.

The case relates to income tax declaration by Yadav that for construction of a house here he had borrowed Rs 2.5 lakh from his wife who was running a dairy farm when he was chief minister. The CBI and income tax department came to the conclusion that much more money was invested on the house the construction of which coincided with the fodder scam involving fraudulent withdrawal of about Rs 1000 crore from different government treasuries by animal husbandry officials of Bihar.

Yadav, who was then chief minister and held charge of finance portfolio, had been accused of conspiracy in the case.

As soon as CBI officials descended on the 1, Anne Marg residence of the chief minister, normally a centre of activity, at around 8 am, it was barred to visitors though senior state government and police officials were present.

Simultaneous raids were also conducted at the premises of Yadav's close relations including a brother-in-law who is a member of Bihar Legislative Council.

The case was filed after an extensive review of investigations by CBI into the fodder scam by its Joint Director U N Biswas. This comes only a few days after the deadline for the Centre to appeal against his exoneration by the Calcutta high court for seeking the army's help to arrest Yadav expired.

The CBI has so far registered four such cases apart from 49 regular cases in connection with the multi-crore fodder scam.

Of the four regular cases involving conspiracy aspects of fraudulent withdrawals of several crores of rupees from state treasuries, Laloo Yadav has secured bail in three.

Yadav had moved the apex court seeking quashing of a surrender order issued against him by the special court in another case (RC 64/98) that relates to fraudulent withdrawals of over Rs 97 lakh from the Deoghar treasury by the state Animal Husbandry Department officials through "fake and forged" bills.

The Supreme Court is due to hear Yadav's petition tomorrow.

Dismissal drive boosted

Meanwhile, RJD baiters, the Janata Dal and the Samata Party have used the raids to reiterate their demand for the dismissal of the Rabri regime in the state.

Senior Dal leader Ram Vilas Paswan and state Samata president Raghunath Jha separately met Governor S S Bhandari at Raj Bhavan to demand Rabri's dismissal even as CBI raids were on a stone's throw away at 1, Anne Marg.

``Rabri Devi has lost moral authority to continue in office even for a moment after the raid, the first on the house of a serving chief minister,'' Paswan told newsmen.

State Samata president, while seeking Rabri's dismissal said ``she has brought disgrace to the high office by sheltering the main accused of the fodder scam''. The Samata delegation requested the Governor to lose no time in recommending imposition of President's rule in Bihar.

Laloo arrest stayed

NEW DELHI: The SC on Friday extended its interim order staying arrests of former CMs of Bihar Laloo Prasad Yadav and Jagannath Mishra and seven others in the fodder case till September 11, when their bail applications would be heard.

A three judge bench comprising Chief Justice M M Punchhi, justice M Srinivasan and justice S Rajendra Babu extended the interim order while posting the matter before a special bench headed by Justice M K Mukherjee, which was earlier dealing with all fodder scam related cases.

CBI special judge S K Lal on July 27 had granted one week time to Laloo and five others to surrender before his court.