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New Delhi: On Wednesday, Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court has sent Lalu’s close associate Amit Katyal to judicial custody until December 5 in a money laundering case. Amit Katyal is a businessman. Amit’s company’s name had come up for money laundering in the land-in-exchange-job case.
Amit Katyal was arrested by ED from Delhi on November 11. Katyal remand comes in connection with an ongoing money-laundering investigation related to the lands-for-jobs case. Amit Katyal was previously in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) until November 22, where he was being questioned in connection with the alleged financial irregularities.
After that he was remanded in judicial custody for one day by Rouse Avenue Court. After this, the ED produced Katyal in the duty magistrate’s court on November 12 and sought 14 days’ custody. However, the court sent him to four days’ custody. The land-for-jobs case against Lalu Yadav involves allegations that during his tenure as Union Railway Minister from 2004 to 2009, he and his family members obtained pecuniary benefits by transferring landed property in their names in exchange for appointing ‘substitutes’ on Group D posts in various railway zones.
According to the information, Katyal is a close associate of Lalu Yadav and is also a former director of AK Info Systems Pvt Ltd, the beneficiary company in the case. This company is registered at an address at New Friends Colony in South Delhi. This residential building was being used by the family of Lalu Yadav.
The property is declared on paper as the office of M/s AB Exports Pvt Ltd and M/s AK Info Systems Pvt Ltd. But, it is being used as a residential complex especially by Tejashwi Yadav. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has accused Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi, daughter Misa Bharti and others of being involved in a criminal conspiracy to provide railway jobs to candidates, who in turn sold or gifted land to the Yadavs at low prices. Market rates. In July 2023, the CBI arrested Lalu’s former officer on special duty Bhola Yadav in connection with the case.
In March 2023, the CBI had filed a charge sheet against 16 persons, including Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members. ED also conducted raids and arrested persons linked to the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. A Delhi court summoned Lalu Yadav, Rabri Devi and others in February 2023, and two former chief ministers of Bihar were questioned by the CBI in March 2023 as part of the ongoing investigation.
