Court issues notice to CBI on Rabri Devi's plea seeking transfer of graft case to another judge

A Delhi court on Wednesday sought a response from the CBI on a plea filed by former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi seeking transfer of the IRCTC hotel scam case to a different judge.

Principal and Sessions Judge Dinesh Bhatt was hearing the plea of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and issued the notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The court, however, refused to stay the ongoing trial proceedings in the CBI case.

Earlier on Monday, she moved a plea seeking transfer of the CBI and ED cases registered against her to another court, saying she had a reasonable apprehension that “fair and impartial justice” would not be rendered.

The former Bihar chief minister is named as an accused in four cases, including the land-for-jobs and IRCTC scam case, which are being heard by Special Judge Vishal Gogne.

The plea, submitted by Rabri Devi before the Principal District and Sessions Judge submitted, “The applicant (Devi) is having a bonafide and reasonable apprehension that fair and impartial justice will not be rendered by the Special Judge and that the conduct of the Special Judge during the proceedings in all cases appears to be unduly inclined towards the prosecution and bias which can be seen from number of instances of the case proceedinds/order”.

The plea claimed there was “a reasonable apprehension of bias” and that in the interest of justice, the cases needed to be transferred to another court of competent jurisdiction.

The judge then listed the matter on December 6 for further proceedings.