New Delhi: Railway jobs in exchange for land parcels, purchases using shell companies, and violation of service rules. These are the allegations that Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi, and their MP daughter Misa Bharti face.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are probing the Yadav family in a ‘land-for-jobs’ scam. The alleged scam, which involves acquiring large parcels of land at throwaway prices in exchange for jobs in the Indian Railways, pertains to the period when Lalu was the railway minister from 2004 to 2009.
Last week, the ED conducted raids across 15 locations, including places in Delhi, the National Capital Region (NCR), and Bihar, in connection with the case. Among the places raided were the residences of Misa Bharti and RJD leader and former legislator Syed Abu Dojana.
The CBI has already questioned Lalu and Rabri — both former Bihar chief ministers — in connection with the case. The agency has also filed a charge sheet against both of them, as well as 14 others, for criminal conspiracy as well as under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
On Wednesday, a Delhi court granted bail to Lalu, his wife and daughter.
So what is this land-for-jobs scam? What are the key allegations and what has the CBI probe found till now?
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Payments in cash, made to shell companies
In September 2021, the CBI registered a preliminary enquiry into the alleged appointment of substitutes in Group D posts in various zones of the Indian Railways.
Substitutes are persons engaged on regular scales of pay and allowances applicable to posts against which they are employed. These posts fall vacant on account of a railway servant being on leave or due to non-availability of permanent or temporary railway servants and which cannot be kept vacant.
The appointments, according to the CBI, were made in violation of recruitment rules and in return for land parcels that were either gifted to Lalu’s family members or sold to them at “lower rates than the prevailing circle rates”.
These rates were sometimes as low as one-fourth to one-fifth of the market rates.
According to CBI officers, as the railway minister and a public servant, Lalu abused his official position and made pecuniary gains from the appointment.
“These individuals — although residents of Patna in Bihar — were appointed as substitutes in different railway zones located at Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur, and Hajipur. In exchange for these appointments, they themselves or their family transferred their land in the name of family members of Lalu, including his wife and daughter, and a company named A.K.Infosystems Private Limited,” a CBI officer explained to ThePrint.
According to the CBI, A.K.Infosystems is a Delhi-based shell company. In 2014, Rabri Devi allegedly acquired the majority shares of the company and subsequently became a director.
The officer further said: “These appointments were allegedly done by public servants of Indian Railways at the behest of Yadav, without following instructions and guidelines issued by the department and later these individuals were also regularised without following proper rules.”
According to the CBI, 12 candidates got jobs in this manner. In return, the Yadav family allegedly got close to 1.25 lakh sq. ft of land in Patna, acquired through shell companies.
For instance, according to the CBI’s FIR in the case, Kishun Deo Rai, a resident of Mahuabagh, Patna, allegedly transferred a piece of land to Rabri for Rs 3.75 lakh in February 2007. The probe agency’s inquiry, however, allegedly found that three family members of the seller were appointed as substitutes in Central Railway, Mumbai, in 2008.
Similarly, three brothers, Sanjay, Dharmendra, and Ravindra Rai, allegedly transferred a parcel of land in Patna to Rabri in February 2008.
An inquiry into the sale, CBI claims, shows that the sellers themselves and one Vikas Kumar, the son of Ravindra Rai, were appointed in Central Railway, Mumbai, in 2008 as well.
In the third instance, a woman named Kiran Devi allegedly sold land to Bharti for Rs 3.7 lakh in November 2007. The CBI claims that its inquiry found that Kiran Devi’s son was appointed in the Central Railway, Mumbai, in 2008.
Likewise, a person called Hazari Raim allegedly transferred some land to A.K.Infosystem Private Limited for Rs 10.8 lakh in February 2007. Investigations, the CBI claims, show that two nephews of the seller were appointed in West Central Railway, Jabalpur, and South Eastern Railway, Kolkata, in 2006.
According to the CBI, in most cases of land transfer, payment was shown in cash.
Incomplete applications, hasty appointments
The CBI investigation found that no advertisement or public notice was issued for the appointments and that, in some cases, even incomplete applications were processed.
Despite such glaring discrepancies, the substitutes, who are all residents of Patna, were appointed in different zonal railways in Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur, and Hazipur, sources in the CBI told ThePrint.
The federal agency also allegedly found that in some cases, applications were without the complete address of the general manager of the Central Railway office — which, according to CBI officers, was a basic requirement.
“In other railway zones also namely West Central Railway, Jabalpur, and Western Railway, Mumbai, the applications, without complete address of the respective addressees, were processed and approved for appointments,” a second officer told ThePrint.
In its charge sheet, the CBI has also said that “undue haste was shown in processing certain applications of candidates” and that some were approved “within three days from the date of receiving the applications”.
Besides discrepancies in the applications, the CBI claimed that some candidates seemingly obtained requisite certificates together.
“Each certificate, such as those related to school transfer and caste, were found to be having continuous serial numbers, indicating that they were obtained together for a common purpose,” the second CBI officer said.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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