CBI officials have filed a new case against Lalu Prasad Yadav, the RJD chief, on the charge of taking land from aspirants in return for jobs in the railway
File photo of Lalu Prasad Yadav. PTI
The CBI has registered a fresh case against former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav on the charge of taking land from aspirants in return for jobs in the railway, officials said on Friday.
The probe agency has started searches at 17 locations in Delhi and Bihar, they said.
The alleged land-for-jobs scam pertains to the period when Lalu Prasad Yadav was the railway minister in the UPA government, officials said.
Though the CBI team refused to comment, people aware of the matter said that the searches are being conducted at different locations in Patna and Gopalganj and are related to a land-for-job scam in the railways between 2004 and 2009, when Lalu Prasad was the railway minister.
The searches started a little before 7 am and Lalu’s wife Rabri Devi, his legislator son Tej Pratap and daughter Misa Bharti were present when the CBI team arrived at the 10, Circular Road residence of Rabri Devi. A CBI team also reached Phulwaria, Lalu Prasad’s native village in Gopalganj.
Sources said the locations were spread across Delhi, Patna and Gopalganj. The fresh case is based on allegations that Yadav accepted plots of land as bribes to give jobs to people while he was the Union railways minister in the UPA government.
The 73-year-old leader was recently granted bail in the fifth fodder case against him. This was the last of the corruption cases linked to the fodder scam in which the RJD leader was convicted and had got a bail. Soon after the bail, he was admitted to Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences for treatment, which delayed his return to Patna.
On Friday, a huge police deployment was seen amid the CBI searches at residence of Rabri Devi, Lalu’s wife. He was the chief minister of Bihar between 1990 and 1997.
“We had pleaded that he has served half of his five-year sentence in this case. Prasad has already served 42 months in jail against the half sentence of 30 months. Though the CBI opposed the petition saying he is still to serve half the sentence in this case, we had submitted the trial court’s certified copy. The court has granted bail,” his lawyer, Prabhat Kumar, had said after he got the bail.
As the news of CBI searches spread, a large number of RJD supporters gathered outside Rabri’s residence and raised slogans against BJP and the central agency.
The treasury scam case was the fifth fodder scam case in which Mr Yadav was convicted.
With inputs from agencies
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