Overview
- Special Judge Vishal Gogne, in a 35-page order, dismissed pleas by Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi seeking wholesale access to unrelied material in the land-for-jobs case.
- The court said providing 1,675 documents en bloc would put the cart before the horse and throw proceedings into complete disarray.
- Proceedings will continue on the prosecution’s relied evidence—421 documents and witness testimony—with only specific, necessity-based requests for other records to be entertained later.
- CBI prosecutor D.P. Singh told the court the defence got the list of unrelied documents over a year ago, failed to identify any needed items, and had opportunities to inspect the material.
- Applications from R.K. Mahajan and Maheep Kapoor for select unrelied records were also rejected, as the case moves from charges framed on 9 January toward prosecution witness examination.