Noose Tightening again on Lalu Prasad, CBI Carries our Fresh Raids in “Land-for-job” Scam

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, May 20: Just out of the infamous fodder scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation is again knocking the doors of the former Bihar chief minister and the Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, this time covering the tenure when he was the railway minister in the UPA union government under the prime ministership of Manmohan Singh from 2004 to 2009.  What the Rashtriya Janata Dal called the “political vendetta of the worst order,” the CBI on Friday conducted searches at 16 locations in Delhi and Bihar in connection with a fresh alleged scam involving the RJD supremo and the former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.

In what has come to be known as an alleged “land-for-job scam,” the CBI had registered a case against Lalu Prasad and others related to corruption charges in awarding maintenance contracts of the Railway hotels in Ranchi and Puri to Patna-based Sujata Hotels in 2006. The Ranchi and Puri railway hotels were initially transferred to the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, an arm of the Indian Railways, and then to the company owning the Sujata Hotels.

The CBI had alleged a conspiracy in ensuring that the contracts were given to Sujata Hotels, in lieu of a three-acre commercial property in Patna that was acquired through a front company, Delight Marketing Company. The company, which had bought the land, was later taken over by Lalu Prasad’s wife Rabri Devi and son Tejaswi Yadav, the CBI claimed.

“The searches are being carried out in Delhi, Patna and Gopalganj in Bihar,” said a CBI official. It is alleged that land parcels were given in bribes for recruitment during the tenure of Mr. Prasad as Union Minister of Railways from 2004 to 2009,” he said.

The Bihar BJP leaders, who called Lalu and his family “the symbol of corruption in Bihar,” said even the children in Bihar know about the Yadav family’s corrupt practices and felt happy that finally CBI was closing in on the family.

The CBI was conducting raids at residences of Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi as well as at the residence of Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav in Patna, Gopalganj, Delhi and other places in the 2017 IRCTC case in which the investigating agency has filed a charge-sheet against the three. The case pertained to allegations of Lalu Prasad offering jobs in lieu of land plots during his tenure as Union railway minister.

The CBI teams have started raids at 10, Circular Road, the Patna residence of Rabri Devi. The teams also visited three other locations in Patna where the family owns plots or houses. These locations are in Mahuabagh area near Phuleari Sharif, Danapur Khatal (cowshed) and Marachhiya Devi apartments in Ranjan Path. Besides Patna, raids are also being conducted at the Gopalganj house of Lalu Prasad and in Gurgaon and Delhi, besides other locations where the agency suspects the family owns property.

While the ailing Lalu Prasad is in Delhi, Tejashwi is in London and Rabri Devi is at her Patna residence.

The RJD called the raids “political vendetta of the worst order”. Senior RJD leader Shakti Singh Yadav said: “We have been telling it right from the start. It is political vendetta of the worst order. The BJP is targeting regional parties.”

Asked if the raids have anything to do with the growing proximity of the JD(U) and RJD on the caste census matter and the bonhomie between Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi seen during recent Iftaar parties, Yadav said: “That could be possible. The BJP has been out to destroy regional parties like us.”

RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tewari added: “The timing of the raids smacks of political vendetta. Whenever there has been any hint of RJD and JD (U) getting closer, the BJP resorts to such tactics.”

Senior JD (U) leader and building construction minister Ashok Kumar Choudhary took a cautious stand. “The CBI has been doing its job. Let us not read politics into it,” he said.

BJP national spokesperson and Bihar industries minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, however, said: “Law has been taking its own course, the CBI has been doing its job. Allegations of the CBI being misused emerge from the RJD’s frustration.”

But the former Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi, a life-long political opponent of Lalu Yadav, said the RJD chief’s modus operandi was to lure people seeking jobs in exchange for land.

“The modus operandi was that you give me land and in return, I will give a Group D job in the Railways. Here, the land was first granted in someone else’s name and after 5-6 years it was gifted to Yadav and his family (by the said group-D employee),” Sushil Modi alleged.

Modi alleged that Shivanand Tiwari, who is a senior leader of RJD and Lalan Singh, who is the President of JDU, had given a memorandum to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and alleged how Yadav got those lands in exchange for a job.”

He said in his book “Lalu Leela” written in 2018, he had mentioned the incident of Hridayanand Choudhary and Lalan Choudhary, where the former is working in a Legislative Council in Bihar and second one was in Railways. The BJP MP also raised concerns on how can a D-group employee afford to gift properties worth crores.

“We had uncovered more than a dozen cases and I am very happy that the CBI has got the evidence for the case whose Preliminary Enquiry (PE) was registered on 23 September 2021. After registering the PE, when CBI got evidence and related documents I guess that was when the raid started,” he added. “Even the children of Bihar are aware that Kanti Singh and Raghunath Jha had gifted a house to Yadav’s family, in return for making him a minister in state and Centre,” he alleged.

The senior Bihar BJP leader also claimed that Lalu Yadav has 141 land plots and 30 flats, besides being the owner of half a dozen houses, whose proof is also available in this book (Lalu Leela). He also raised questions about the properties and wealth of Tejashwi Yadav.

Accusing the BJP government at the centre of being guided by political vendetta to try demolish the regional parties, Shivanand Tiwari, who is close to Lalu Prasad, wondered: “Is the CBI raid at places of Mr. Prasad a warning to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar because of his growing proximity to RJD leader and younger son of Mr. Prasad, Tejashwi Yadav. It might have made BJP uncomfortable. At least the timing of the raids indicates towards it”.

Senior RJD leader Alok Mehta said, “this [CBI raid] is an attempt to finish off the Opposition. There is an attempt to silence voice of the Opposition.” Recently, Prasad, 73, was granted bail in one of the fodder scam cases and released from jail after over 3.5 years incarceration. Since then, the ailing Prasad has been recuperating at the residence of his elder daughter and party’s Rajya Sabha member Misa Bharti in New Delhi.