PATNA, June 11: All the five IAS officers, who were formally arrested today by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the fodder scam were remanded to two days judicial custody by the special CBI court today.

Though the CBI counsel pleaded for 15 days remand, the judge SK Lal did not oblige.

The officers were interrogated by the local CBI office on Tuesday night. Although they appeared visibly annoyed with the CBI officials, they did not protest.

Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav did not react strongly to the raids, instead told press persons, ``Let them do their work. I am not going to interfere in any way. If they approach me for the suspension of the concerned officials, I will consider it.''

Laloo today consulted a team of senior lawyers and asked them to prepare the draft for an anticipatory bail. Sources say that the Chief Minister himself took keen interest in preparing the draft and suggested that mention be made of the CBI's ``partisan'' manner of functioning. The Chief Minister apparently plans to move an affidavit on June 24 charging the CBI with maligning him and falsely implicating him in the fodder scam. This is the time that Laloo would be moving his case before the court.

In a day of fast moving developments, Congress leader Jagannath Mishra moved an anticipatory bail petition. The court will hear it tomorrow.

In a simultaneous move, the Income Tax commissioner of Calcutta, Adhip Chandra Choudhury, was arrested from his office here in connection with the multi-crore fodder scam. The CBI alleged that Choudhury, as Ranchi I-T commissioner from May 1994 to December 1996, received illegal payments in connivance with the officers of the Animal Husbandry Department of Bihar government.

The arrests followed simultaneous raids by CBI sleuths on the residences of the five officials in the state capital last evening after which they were whisked away to the CBI regional office for intensive interrogation.Meanwhile, a red alert has been sounded throughout Bihar in view of the 48-hour state-wide bandh beginning tomorrow to demand the resignation of Laloo Prasad. The state's director general of police, S K Saxena, said that all police stations have been put on high alert.

The bandh has been called by a 15-party front of Left and democratic organisations.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.