RJD leaders today asserted that nobody from the party made telephone calls to the special CBI judge at Ranchi, who is to pronounce the quantum of punishment to Lalu Prasad in a fodder scam case, but felt political opponents may have done so in the guise of RJD supporters.


The assertions were made by Shivanand Tiwary and senior party leader Jagdanand Singh.


Their denial came in the wake of special CBI court judge Shiv Pal Singh, before deferring the pronouncement on quantum of punishment on Lalu yesterday, commenting in his presence about him receiving phone calls from the RJD chief's well-wishers.


"I came to know about it (special CBI judge Singh making the aforementioned statement in court) through media reports. I can say with certainty that no RJD leader would resort to such a step, as everyone knows that such desperation can backfire", Tiwary told reporters.


He also said "the possibility of our political opponents making such a call in the guise of RJD supporters cannot be ruled out. They may indulge in such mischief to queer the pitch for Lalu".


The RJD vice president expressed hope that "quantum of sentence in the instant case relates to withdrawal of money from Deogarh treasury will be less than the one awarded to him in 2013 since the amount involved in the present case is much smaller". -- PTI