CBI gets sanction to prosecute Lalu in land-for-jobs case

On October 7 last year, the CBI had filed a charge sheet against 16 people, including Prasad, his wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, daughter Misa Bharti and two former senior railway officials.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been granted sanction by the union government to prosecute Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad in the case wherein he is accused of doling out jobs in the Indian Railways after accepting land at discounted prices as bribe from the applicants during his stint as the railway minister between 2004 and 2009, an official of the probe agency said on Friday.

Lalu Prasad. (ANI)

Prasad is currently in Singapore after undergoing a kidney transplant.

“In the amended Prevention of Corruption Act, a prior sanction is needed for the agency to prosecute a public servant for offences relating to his stint in that office,” said a CBI spokesperson, who was not willing to be identified.

The case is currently being heard by a court in Delhi.

On October 7 last year, the CBI had filed a charge sheet against 16 people, including Prasad, his wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, daughter Misa Bharti and two former senior railway officials — Sowmya Raghvan, former general manager (GM), and Kamal Deep, former chief personnel officer (CPO) — in the case.

Seven candidates, who allegedly sold their land to the then rail minister and his family in lieu of jobs, have also been charge-sheeted.

The CBI had registered an FIR on May 18, 2022, against Lalu Prasad and 15 others in the case.

Prasad has already been convicted and sentenced in a number of fodder scam cases and is currently out on bail.