CBI arrests Lalu Prasad's aide in land-for-jobs scam

A railway employee, Hridayanand Chaudhary, an alleged beneficiary of the land-for-jobs scam was also arrested by CBI on Wednesday.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad’s close aide Bhola Yadav in Delhi in connection with the land-for-jobs scam in the Indian Railways when the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president was the railway minister, officials said.

Patna-July.27,2022-Former RJD MLA Bhola Yadav after CBI raid at his residence in Railway Recruitment scam at Friends Colony Dhigh Ashiyana Road in Patna. Bihar India on Wednesday July 27,2022.(Photo by Santosh Kumar /Hindustan Times.

CBI also conducted searches at four premises — two each in Patna and Darbhanga (in Bihar) — belonging to Yadav, and recovered incriminating documents and a diary from his ancestral house, a senior CBI official said.

A railway employee, Hridayanand Chaudhary, an alleged beneficiary of the land-for-jobs scam was also arrested by CBI on Wednesday.

Yadav was the officer on special duty (OSD) to then railway minister Prasad between 2005 and 2009 during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. Yadav’s role in the scam surfaced during his questioning, said a CBI official.

“Yadav had played a crucial role in facilitating the jobs and later, the transfer of land to Prasad’s family,” said the official, requesting anonymity.

According to CBI, land measuring over 100,000 square feet belonging to job aspirants’ families in Patna was allegedly purchased or transferred to the RJD chief’s family members in return for group-D jobs in the railways as substitutes.

“During investigation, it was found that the then OSD to former railway minister...was involved in the alleged conspiracy in appointment of substitutes,” a CBI spokesperson said in a statement. “It was further alleged that the accused was managing affairs in transfer of land by the family members of substitutes to the family members of former railway minister.”

Bhola and Chaudhary, both arrested in Delhi, were produced before Rouse Avenue district court, which sent them in CBI custody till August 2.

Yadav, the current RJD national general secretary, won the Bahadurpur seat in Darbhanga in the 2015 Bihar assembly elections. In 2020 polls, he unsuccessfully contested from Hayaghat in the same district.

Choudhary, who was appointed as substitute in East Central Railway at Rajendra Nagar Terminal, is a native of Itwa village in Bihar’s Gopalganj district. He allegedly gifted his land to Prasad’s daughter Hema Yadav.

According to a railway board circular in 2010, substitutes are persons engaged in Indian Railway Establishments on regular scales of pay and allowances applicable to posts against which they are employed. These posts cannot be kept vacant and substitutes are engaged when a railway staff is on leave or due to non-availability of permanent or temporary staff.

CBI registered the FIR on May 18 against Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi and two daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav, in addition to 12 people who were given jobs in the railway zones of Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur and Hajipur.

“The central agency initiated a preliminary enquiry and after finding evidence in the case, an FIR was lodged. CBI found seven instances where jobs were allegedly given to candidates when their family members transferred land to Lalu Prasad’s family,” a CBI official told HT on condition of anonymity. “CBI sleuths led by Inspector Jairaj Katiyar (EoU-IV) stationed at Patna since July 2021, collected evidence and inquired people.”

The agency has alleged that land measuring about 105,292 square feet in Patna was acquired by Prasad’s family members by making payments to the sellers in cash. The land/immovable assets were acquired through five sale deeds and two gift deeds.

“The current value of the above said seven parcels of land, including the land acquired through gift deeds, as per the existing circle rate is about ₹4.39 crore...,” CBI has claimed in the FIR, a copy of which HT has seen. “Enquiry has revealed that the parcel of land, which was directly purchased by the family members of Lalu Prasad from the sellers, was purchased at lower rates than the prevailing circle rates.”

The FIR said people were appointed in the railways without any advertisement or public notice issued for the purpose on the basis of forged documents. The agency also carried out searches at Prasad’s residence in Patna and other locations on May 20.

The RJD on Wednesday alleged that Yadav’s arrest was a fallout of the party’s opposition to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre.

“It is no secret that agencies like CBI, ED and the IT department are being used to harass BJP’s political opponents. Bhola babu’s arrest is the limit,” said RJD spokesperson Shakti Singh Yadav.

The BJP, however, rebutted the allegations saying Prasad and his cohorts were “reaping what they have sown”.

“Lalu Prasad has been sentenced in fodder scam cases which were lodged when he was the chief minister of Bihar. CBI took these up when, as Janata Dal president he was calling the shots in the UPA government at the Centre,” said BJP leader and state minister Nitin Nabin. “All those who have been guilty of wrongdoing will face action by the agencies which are functioning independently.”