The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), probing the land-for-job scam that dates back to Lalu Yadav’s tenure as the Railways Minister, has recovered as many as 1458 sales deeds during the raids at the premises of several RJD leaders in Bihar, reports CNN-News 18.
#BreakingNews | Top CBI sources to CNN News18 | Mega #Exclusive: There are over 1 thousand cases related to Land for Job scam#Bihar #landforjob #LaluPrasadYadav
— News18 (@CNNnews18) August 25, 2022
(Exclusive Input: @manojkumargupta)@Ashish_Mehrishi shares details
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CBI sources have reportedly told the news channel that the agency is also in possession of a hard disk that has a list of candidates who gave their lands to Lalu Yadav in lieu of jobs. According to the CBI investigation, as many as 16 cases have been verified and proven correct as of now. The agency is further probing the rest of the names available on the hard disk and would be writing to the Indian railways to know more about these candidates.
News 18 has reported that Bhola Yadav, the then OSD to former Railway Minister Lalu Yadav, has confirmed to the agency that several candidates, despite forged documents, got appointed in Railways after they allegedly gifted land to the Lalu Yadav family when the RJD supremo was the Railway Minister in the UPA government.
The channel has claimed that Bihar’s deputy chief minister and RJD supremo Tejashwi Yadav might get arrested as the agency has found very strong evidence against him.
Meanwhile, Republic TV has accessed ‘gifted’ land deeds that have the signature of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s wife and former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi as the beneficiary. Bhola Yadav, who has been arrested, has signed as a witness. According to the media report, the value of the land parcels is estimated to be Rs 4.4 crore.
Yesterday (August 24), as part of the investigation into the alleged scam, CBI conducted raids at the houses of four RJD leaders in connection with the land-for-jobs scam. The raids were carried out at the premises of RJD MLC Sunil Singh, Rajya Sabha MPs Ashfaq Karim and Faiyaz Ahmed, and former MLC Subodh Rai, officials said.
CBI raids Urban Cubes mall allegedly owned by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav
Besides, the agency had also raided a mall in Gurugram, Haryana. The Urban Cubes mall which was raided is allegedly owned by Bihar’s deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav. This mall is situated in Sector 71 and the CBI raid was in connection with the land-for-job scam in Bihar.
Apart from the mall, the CBI also raided many other places including Whiteland Corporation Private Limited located in the Worldmark building in Sector 65 of Gurugram. According to a report by ABP News, construction of the Urban Cubes mall was done by the Whiteland company. Tejashwi Yadav’s family owns a share in this company. Bihar’s deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav has denied that he owns the mall. He said that the mall does not belong to him and that a BJP MP inaugurated it.
The land-for-job scam and its alleged links to Lalu Prasad Yadav
It may be recalled that the CBI initiated a preliminary enquiry in September 2021 into the charges that when Lalu Prasad Yadav was the railway minister during UPA 1, obtained benefits in the form of the transfer of property in the names of his family members in exchange for the appointments in Group “D” posts in various Railway zones.
On May 18, 2022, CBI filed a new case of corruption against Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi, and his daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav, accusing them of obtaining land plots as bribes from some people who were recruited in the Railways. The CBI also named 12 others in this case who were given jobs in the railway zones of Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur, and Hajipur.
In the FIR, CBI alleged, “In lieu thereof, the substitutes, who were residents of Patna themselves or through their family members, sold and gifted their land situated at Patna in favour of the family members of Lalu Prasad Yadav and a private company controlled by family members, which was also involved in the transfer of such immovable properties in the name of family members.”
According to the agency, no advertisement or any public notice was issued for such appointment of substitutes in Zonal Railways, yet the appointees who were residents of Patna were appointed in Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur, and Hajipur.
The CBI investigations revealed that Lalu’s family obtained over one lakh square feet of land in this manner for just Rs 26 lakh, despite the fact that the land’s actual value is over Rs 4.39 crore.
In connection with the case, the CBI arrested Bhola Yadav, the former Officer on Special Duty (OSD) of then Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, earlier in July. At the same time, authorities arrested Hridayanand Chaudhary, a railway employee suspected of being a beneficiary of the land-for-jobs scam.
In a statement following Bhola Yadav’s arrest, a CBI official stated, “During the investigation, it was found that the then OSD to former railway minister was involved in the alleged conspiracy in the appointment of substitutes. The accused was managing affairs for the transfer of land by the family members of the substitutes to the family members of the former railway minister.”
This scam is not the only scam that Lalu Prasad has allegedly been involved in. In fact, Lalu’s scams and crimes spanned from the 1990s till 2014 – almost over two decades.
Lalu Yadav’s previous Convictions in the Fodder Scam
Lalu Prasad Yadav was convicted for the first time on September 30, 2013, in the Chaibasa treasury case. He was accused of a scam of Rs 37.70 crore in this case, resulting in his disqualification from the Lok Sabha and a jail term of five years. He was later granted bail by the Supreme Court in December 2013. In December 2017, Lalu was convicted again pertaining to his involvement in the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs. 89.27 lakh from Deoghar treasury. While Lalu was sentenced to 42 months of jail term, in this case, he was out on bail within six months.
In January 2018, Lalu was again sentenced to five years of imprisonment for his involvement in the withdrawal of Rs. 33.13 crores from the Chaibasa treasury. Also in March of the same year, the special court found him guilty of illegal withdrawal of Rs. 3.76 crores from the Dumka treasury and sentenced him to 14 years of imprisonment.
