New Delhi: Soon after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) questioned his parents, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday raided Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav’s Delhi home in the land-for-jobs case.
Raids continued Friday in many locations in Delhi and Bihar, including in the premises of other Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaders.
The CBI questioned RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi – both former chief ministers of Bihar – in connection with the case this week.
While officers interrogated Rabri Devi in her Patna home, another CBI team questioned Lalu in his daughter and MP Misa Bharti’s Dehi home, where he is recuperating from his kidney transplant surgery.
A CBI FIR, registered in 2022, accuses the Yadavs of buying railway land very cheap in return for giving jobs during Lalu Prasad’s tenure as Railways minister in 2004-09.
The FIR names Lalu, Rabri Devi, their two daughters Misa and Hema and 12 others who allegedly got jobs for land.
The CBI has so far arrested three people in the case — Bhola Yadav, who was Lalu’s aide when he was railway minister, railway employee and alleged beneficiary Hriadayanand Chaudhury and another alleged beneficiary Dharmendra Rai.
It is alleged that during Prasad’s tenure as railway minister from 2004-09, irregular candidate appointments were made in the Central Railways, violating the norms and procedures of the Indian Railways for recruitment.
No advertisement or public notice was issued for appointment but some residents of Patna were appointed as “substitutes” in different zonal railways located at Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur and Hazipur, it is alleged.
As a quid pro quo, the candidates, directly or through their immediate family members, allegedly sold land to the family members of Prasad at highly discounted rates, up to one-fourth to one-fifth of the prevailing market rates.
Also read: How Tejashwi went from failed cricketer & a Lok Sabha disaster to almost chief minister