NEW DELHI, July 3: Newly-appointed Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director R C Sharma has asked Joint Director U N Biswas to reach the Capital tomorrow with the second charge-sheet in the fodder scam, implicating Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav.

It is understood that the charge-sheet would be forwarded to Bihar Governor AR Kidwai.

While the CBI has already filed one charge-sheet in the sessions court in Patna against Laloo (FIR no. 20), another charge-sheet relating to FIR no 64 against the Bihar Chief Minister is being prepared by Biswas.

Biswas has been asked to bring other Joint Directors and DIGs for the day-long meeting tomorrow, where Sharma is supposed to make his stance clear. Sharma is keen that the files relating to the fodder scam do not remain pending for long.

He has also urged the Department of Personnel to expedite sanction to prosecute five senior officers in the scam. A delay by the Centre is holding up filing of the amended charge-sheet in Patna against Laloo in the first case. The court had asked the CBI last month to file an amended charge-sheet due to certain discrepancies.

The four IAS officers against whom a case has been made out by the CBI along with Laloo are Beck Julious, Mahesh Prasad, K Almugam and Phool Chand Jain, besides Income-Tax Commissioner A C Chaudhary. Laloo cannot be tried unless the Centre sanctions the prosecution of these officers.

It is learnt that Sharma will call on N N Vohra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, shortly, to impress upon him the fact that the sanction in the fodder case should not be delayed unnecessarily. What has caused anxiety in CBI circles is that the Finance Ministry has not yet approved the prosecution of Chaudhary.

According to sources, Sharma met the 12-member Bofors Special Investigation Team yesterday. The Bofors charge-sheet prepared by Sharma's predecessor Joginder Singh, which implicated the late Rajiv Gandhi, has been pending for Government sanction for almost a month now.

Meanwhile, in a related development, Joginder Singh, who was removed from the post of CBI director three days ago, today held almost an hour-long meeting with Home Minister Indrajit Gupta, here.

Singh, who also met Minister of State for Personnel S R Balasubramoniyan, said he briefed Gupta on the ensuing meeting of the Interpol in Lyons (France) next week. The Home Minister is likely to attend this meeting. Singh, who has been made a special secretary in the Home Ministry, said, ``I briefed the (Home) minister on the Interpol meeting in my capacity as the executive member'' of the world police body.CBI affidavit

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today filed an affidavit in the Patna High Court (HC) on ``threat perception'' to its officials, which has prevented the agency from arresting some top politicians, including Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, in the fodder scam.

The filing of the affidavit follows the July 4 directive of a Division Bench, comprising Justices SN Jha and SJ Mukhopadhyay.

The directive came when CBI Joint Director (East) UN Biswas told the Bench that the ``threat perception'' to the officials had hampered their work.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.