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Bihar chief minister indicted by federal police

PATNA: The chief minister of India's Bihar state and her politically powerful husband were charged on Tuesday by federal police with owning assets disproportionate to their income, officials said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) standing counsel, Rakesh Kumar, said the court may issue arrest warrants against Rabri Devi and her husband, former chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, in a case involving a sum of 4.2 million rupees (96,440).

"The chargesheet... was submitted in the designated CBI court," Kumar told Reuters in Patna, capital of the crime-plagued and impoverished eastern state.

If a non-bailable warrant is issued, Devi - an unschooled housewife who first became chief minister when her scandal-ridden husband handed her the reins of power in 1997 - may have to step down.

Devi was sworn in as chief minister for a second time just three weeks ago after Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) party won the greatest number of seats in inconclusive elections to the state legislative assembly.

Devi and Yadav, a charismatic low caste leader, were accused in April last year of accumulating wealth disproportionate to their known income while he was chief minister.

If found guilty, the penalty could be between one and seven years in prison.

Devi has not yet made a formal statement on the charge but Yadav said it was politically motivated and engineered by the federal coalition government, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Yadav resigned as state chief in 1997 after federal police launched criminal proceedings against him for his involvement in a $280-million farm funds scandal.

The scandal, known as the "fodder scam", involves the suspected embezzlement of funds earmarked for animal welfare and the investigation is still going on. Yadav has denied any wrongdoing.

Devi was asked to head the state administration last month after a week-old government of NDA parties resigned because it lacked a majority in the provincial assembly.

The NDA, which is bitterly opposed to Yadav, took 122 seats and the RJD 124 in the state assembly elections, both well short of the 162 majority-mark required to rule.-Reuters