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Patna: CBI has summoned Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav for questioning today i.e. March 11. The agency has issued summons to him in the land exchange case. It has been reported that earlier the CBI had also sent a summons on February 4, but they did not appear. After this, another summon has been sent to him. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday had conducted raid at his residence in the national capital.
The ED sleuths started the raids at 8.30 am at the RJD leader’s residence located in the New Friends colony in the national capital. Earlier this week, the CBI questioned Lalu Yadav and his wife for several hours in Delhi and Patna respectively, in connection with the case. These raids by the ED were carried under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after the agency filed an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) taking cognisance of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case against Lalu Prasad in the matter.
Tejashwi Yadav termed the CBI action as a result of his family’s “relentless opposition” to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Talking to reporters outside the Bihar Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav said, “It is an open secret that probe agencies are acting against political opponents of the BJP and helping those who agree to align with that party.”
The charges in the case include criminal conspiracy (120-B), cheating (420) under IPC and corruption, the central probe agency had said. According to the charge sheet, between 2004 and 2014, a conspiracy was hatched in pursuance of which BNR hotels of Indian Railways, located at Puri and Ranchi, were first transferred to the IRCTC and later, for its operations, maintenance and upkeep, it was given on lease to Sujata Hotel Private Limited, which is based in Patna.The case pertains to people allegedly given employment in the railways in return for land parcels gifted or sold at cheap rates to the Yadav family and its associates, they said.
Vijay Singla, nephew of Pawan Bansal, who was the railway minister in the UPA government, has also been accused of another scam related to railway recruitment. In the case too, the CBI has registered an FIR against 10 including Vijay Singla. Vijay Singla is also accused of money laundering in this case.
Between 2004 and 2009, Lalu Prasad Yadav was the Railway Minister in the UPA government. It is alleged that there was a scam in railway recruitment when Lalu was the railway minister. It is being said that instead of getting jobs, land and plots were taken from the applicants.
CBI after investigation in this matter registered a case against Lalu Prasad Yadav and his daughter Misa Bharti. It is alleged that the lands that were taken were also taken in the name of Rabri Devi and Misa Bharti. The CBI has filed a charge sheet in the case against Prasad, his wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi and 14 others under charges of criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, and all the accused have been summoned on March 15, officials said. The ED case, filed under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, stems from this CBI complaint.
