New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Tuesday filed its concluding chargesheet in the land-for-jobs scam case allegedly involving Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief and former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members, including his son and former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav.
In the chargesheet filed before Special Judge Vishal Gogne of the Rouse Avenue Court in New Delhi, the federal probe agency listed eight more accused in addition to the Yadavs.
The next hearing has been set for 13 August, when there are likely to be arguments on the consideration of the supplementary chargesheets.
The ED’s probe, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), stems from an FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in May 2022. It alleged that several individuals were appointed as substitutes in Group D jobs, mainly maintenance and support duties, in 11 zones of the Indian Railways between 2004 and 2009 when Lalu Prasad was the Union minister for railways, and their employment was regularised after they transferred land parcels to Lalu’s family. It lists Lalu, his wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, their daughters Misha Bharti and Hema Yadav and 12 others as accused.
Judge Gogne had, at the last hearing on 7 July, directed the ED to file a “concluding chargesheet” within the time frame stipulated by the agency before the court.
In June, the CBI too filed its final chargesheet in the land-for-jobs case under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 467(forgery of valuable security), 468(forgery for purpose of cheating), 471(using forged documents as genuine, 109 (abetment of offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act against 78 people, including Lalu, Rabri Devi, Hema Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, a close aide of the former Union minister Bhola Yadav, 29 public servants in the Indian Railways, and 37 candidates.
“As disclosed during the investigation, then Union railway minister, in furtherance of criminal conspiracy, along with officers of Railways, his family members and others, engaged candidates as Group D substitutes in 11 zones of Indian Railways in complete violation of the extant guidelines in lieu of transfer of land by the candidate himself/by family members and/or by submitting fake educational certificates,” a CBI spokesperson had said in the chargesheet.
The spokesperson further said: “Candidates who were engaged as substitutes in different zones of railways were mainly from the districts which were the constituencies of then Union railway minister and his family members.”
‘Proceeds of crime amounting to Rs 600 crore’
As part of its money laundering probe, the ED had carried out searches at 24 locations linked to the Yadav family in March last year and claimed to have found incriminating documents establishing the proceeds of crime at Rs 600 crore.
The agency allegd that Rs 350 crore of this amount was in the form of immovable properties, while transactions of Rs 250 crore had been routed through various “benamidaars”.
The land the family had acquired, the ED further claimed, was in prominent locations in Patna, with a current market value that would exceed Rs 200 crore.
The agency also alleged that a property in Delhi’s Defence Colony worth Rs 150 crore was acquired for a meagre Rs 4 lakh. On paper, it was the registered address for firms such as A B Exports Private Limited and AK Infosystems Pvt ltd, but in reality, it was being used by Tejashwi “exclusively” as a residential property, claimed the ED.
The probe agency has already chargesheeted these two firms, alleging that they were shell entities used for transferring the proceeds of crime to the Yadav family and A K Infosystems’ promoter Amit Katyal.
Highlighting one such case, the agency in January alleged that one chargesheeted accused Hridyanand Chaudhary, an employee at Rabri Devi’s gaushala (cow shelter) transferred land to Hema Yadav after acquiring it from a candidate in exchange for a job.
More than half the candidates recruited across several railway zones during Lalu’s tenure hailed from constituencies belonging to him and his family members, the ED had claimed. It alleged that Rabri Devi had acquired four land parcels from one family of a candidate at just Rs 7.5 lakh and later sold it to a former RJD MLA at Rs 3.5 crore, a major portion of which was later transferred to Tejashwi’s account.
The Yadavs have denied the allegations, and, after the raids in March last year, Tejaswi attacked the Narendra Modi government and central agencies for not conducting raids against businesspeople such as Gautam Adani, instead pushing baseless allegations against him and his family.
“The ED should make public the seizure list or I will release it exposing them,” Tejaswi said.
Responding to the development in the case, RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwary said the ED’s actions were intimidation tactics used by the central government because the BJP, under Narendra Modi, is not able to fight the RJD politically in Bihar.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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