On Friday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) carried out raids in several cities, including the facilities of the daughters of former CM Lalu Prasad Yadav and several RJD leaders in connection with a money laundering investigation in the ‘land’ scam case. for employment’.
Authorities said the case concerns employment allegedly provided by Indian Railways. This is in exchange for land given away or sold cheaply to the Yadav family and their associates.
On March 6, Lalu Yadav’s wife, Rabri Devi, was questioned at her residence in Patna, followed by the questioning of Lalu Prasad in Delhi the next day at the residence of her daughter Misa Bharti.
Although the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a charge sheet in the case, the series of recent interrogations has been related to newly obtained leads and information received by the CBI in the case.
CBI sources suggest they received more information about the modus operandi of the scam during the course of the investigation.
Officials are verifying claims that Lalu Yadav had acquired more property than the agency was aware of in the alleged scam. He was Minister of Railways between 2004 and 2009 during the UPA regime.
Accusations against Yadav & Co
ED carried out raids in 24 locations including Patna, Mumbai, Delhi, NCR and Ranchi.
In Patna, the ED team began their search operation at the residence of a former RJD MLA from Sitamarhi, a very close associate of Lalu Yadav.
ED carried out raids on SP Verma road in Patna where his company Meridian Construction Pvt Ltd is located. The team had reportedly reached the office which was located on the third floor of the building. However, they had to wait outside for more than 5 hours because the office was closed.
The team was able to enter the facility only after Syed Abu Dojana’s brother, another builder, brought the keys to the office and handed them over to Emergency Department officials.
Syed Abu Dojana, who is now the leader of the RJD, has been under the radar of the central agencies for a while.
In 2022, CBI carried out searches at the residences and offices of RJD leaders Dojana and Subhas Yadav in the ‘land for employment’ scam.
Last year, the CBI also carried out raids on the premises of MLC Sunil Singh, Rajya Sabha MP Asfaq Karim, Rajya Sabha MP Fayyaz Ahmed, ex-MLC Subodh Rai and ex-MLA Abu Dojana in Patna, Madhubani and Katihar in connection with the ‘land for work’ scam.
In 2018, the IT team raided the residence and offices of builder-turned-politician Dojana, who is considered close to Rashtriya Janata Dal boss Lalu Yadav and his family.
Dojana’s company was involved in the construction of the mall, which is said to be one of the largest in Bihar. However, construction was halted by ED in 2018.
The ED action came after the CBI registered a case alleging quid pro quo in awarding contracts for the operation and maintenance of two IRCTC hotels in Ranchi and Puri in lieu of the sale of land in Patna to the company Prem Chand Gupta, a partner at Lalu Yadav, in February. 2005 at scrap price.
political war of words
RJD Rajya Sabha MP and Chief Spokesman Manoj Jha in a statement said: “The pain of stepping down from power in 2022 is not going to go away. That is the reason why even the trees and plants in Lalu ji’s courtyard will also be searched, they will also be investigated.”
Without naming anyone, the RJD MP pointed to the BJP, saying: “you have so tarnished the character of these institutions that you will also fall under their influence when you are not in the center.”
BJP Rajya Sabha MP and former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi said Lalu Yadav was born into a poor family and became the biggest landowner simply by getting land to give away jobs. He has alleged that Lalu Yadav has more than 1 lakh sq ft of valuable land in Patna alone.
Sushil Modi also claimed that Tejashwi Yadav should explain how he became the owner of a four-story house worth billions in New Friends Colony in New Delhi.
He alleged: “Tejashwi Yadav didn’t even get a decent education. He failed at cricket but owned 52 properties at the age of just 29. All this without doing any business. Shouldn’t this be checked?
Sushil Modi further alleged that Lalu Yadav also used the quid pro quo to assign key posts to MLAs, MPs, Ministers and even MLCs. “Lalu Prasad received valuable land and held it in the name of his family members, trapping the entire family. No one else has caught them. Former MLA Abu Dojana is the same person who was building the Rs 750 crore Tejashwi Yadav mall in Patna.”
Congress has alleged that the raids were just a form of harassment. Party chairman Mallikarjun Kharge condemned the raids in a tweet.
During the past 14 hours, Modi ji called the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar @yadavtejashwi ED is sitting at home. His pregnant wife and his sisters are being harassed. @laluprasadrjd Yes, he is old, sick, even then the Modi government showed no humanity towards him.
Now the water has passed over the head.
— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) March 10, 2023
What is the ‘Land for Jobs’ scam?
The alleged scam dates back to the period when Lalu Yadav served as the Union Minister of Railways from 2004 to 2009. During this time, the ‘land for employment’ scam is alleged to have taken place.
The RJD patriarch, his wife Rabri and their daughters Misa and Hema Yadav allegedly received plots of land as bribes from people hired by the Railways in 2008-2009. In addition to that, the CBI claims that 12 people have been given jobs in the railway areas of Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur and Hajipur.
Lalu Prasad Yadav is accused of taking advantage of his position as railway minister by transferring property in the names of his relatives in exchange for appointing replacements to “D” Group posts in various railway zones, according to the CBI.
The CBI in its FIR also alleged that instead the surrogates, who were Patna residents themselves or through their relatives, sold and gave away their land located in Patna in favor of Lalu Prasad’s family members and a private family-owned corporation. members
“Substitutes were recruited in grade D from railways that entered the service much later than their appointment. These substitutes were later regularized after they submitted false documents during the recruitment process that were wrongly verified,” the FIR reads.
According to the CBI, no public announcement or notice was issued for such appointments and these people were appointed as “substitutes” in different zonal railways in Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur and Hazipur.
According to CBI investigations, Lalu’s family bought more than one lakh square feet of land in this way for just Rs 26 lakh. This is despite the fact that the actual value of the land is estimated to be over Rs 4.39 crore.
“About 1,05,292 square feet of land/real estate in Patna was acquired by the family members of the said minister through five deeds of sale and two deeds of gift, showing payment made to the seller in cash at the most land transfers,” a CBI official previously told News18.
With “due haste”, railway officials allegedly substituted candidates for Group D posts within three days of their applications, and were then regularized “in their place by the persons themselves or their relatives who donated their land ”, according to the agency. .
‘Land for Work’ Scam: A Brief Timeline
- September 2021: CBI has launched a preliminary investigation into the ‘land for employment’ scam.
- July 2022 – Close assistant and later OSD of railways, Bhola Yadav arrested by CBI
- August 2022 – Raids on RJD MLC Sunil Singh, MLC Subodh Roy, Rajya Sabha MPs from RJD Ashfaq Karim and Fayaz Ahmed’s house in Madhubani.
- October 2022 – The CBI filed a charge sheet against Lalu Yadav, Rabri and 14 others on charges of criminal conspiracy and provisions of the prevention of corruption law.
- January 2023 – CBI won sanction to prosecute Lalu Yadav in ‘land for employment’ scam case
- February 2023 – The Rouse Avenue court summons Lalu Yadav, Rabri, Misa Bharti and 13 others to appear in court on March 1.
- March 6, 2023 – CBI interrogates Rabri Devi at her residence in Patna
- March 7, 2023 – CBI questioned Lalu Yadav in Delhi
- March 10, 2023 – ED Raids at 24 Locations in Patna, Ranchi, Mumbai, Delhi and NCR
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