PATNA, June 18: With his prosecution in the fodder scam becoming imminent, Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav today made himself out as a man who is being persecuted.

After an hour-long meeting with Governor A R Kidwai in Raj Bhavan here today, Laloo emerged to inform newspersons that he had asked the former to keep his assent in abeyance till certain matters of law were settled.

In a related development, Calcutta-based Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Director D R Karthikeyan arrived here ``to give finishing touches to the charge-sheets'', as one official put it. When exactly the charge-sheets would be presented remains a matter of speculation, but one source indicated that it could be as early as June 20. The crux of the Chief Minister's contention after the meeting at Raj Bhavan was that the Governor had been misled by the CBI on the grounds for sanction of his prosecution in the Rs 950-crore fodder fraud. Laloo would not be drawn into a comment on the Governor's reaction to his request.

``The CBI hoodwinked the Governor to obtain the sanction for my prosecution (on the ground of complicity in the conspiracy),'' Laloo said. According to him, the investigating agency had palmed off on the Governor a letter by the AG on the advisability of prosecuting Janata Dal MLA R K Rana in a related, but separate case. By implication, the AG's advice on Rana was not necessarily applicable to Laloo. The Chief Minister's grouse is that despite public assurances, Kidwai had not waited for the opinion of the Attorney General of India before agreeing to the CBI request to permit his prosecution. (AG Ashok Desai is out of the country and is not scheduled to return until next month).

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