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ED files charge sheet against Rabri, two daughters in land-for-job scam
ED on Tuesday filed its first charge sheet in a money-laundering case linked to the land-for-jobs scam.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday filed its first charge sheet in a money-laundering case linked to the land-for-jobs scam, naming Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad’s wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi and their daughters, Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav, among the seven accused.
The federal agency, which is conducting a probe on the basis of a first information report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), also named a “close associate” of the Yadav family Amit Katyal, railway employee and alleged beneficiary Hridayanand Chaudhary, and two firms AK Infosystems Pvt Ltd and AB Exports Pvt Ltd, through their common director Shariqul Bari, in the charge sheet that runs into nearly 4,700 pages.
The RJD alleged in response to the charge sheet that the central probe agencies were working at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre. The BJP dismissed the contention and accused the Lalu Prasad family of years of rampant corruption.
The land-for-jobs scam pertains to appointments in the Railways allegedly in return of land parcels for Lalu Prasad’s family between 2004 and 2009, when he was the Union railways minister. In October 2022, CBI filed its charge sheet against Lalu, Devi, Misa and 13 others in the case. In March last year, a Delhi court granted bail to Lalu, Rabri, Misa and others in CBI’s case.
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On Tuesday, ED filed its charge sheet before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Delhi that listed the matter for January 16. Neither Lalu nor his son, Tejashwi Yadav, who is the deputy chief minister of Bihar, were named in the charge sheet.To be sure, agencies often file supplementary charge sheets as the investigation progresses.
Appearing before the court, special public prosecutor (SPP) Manish Jain, along with advocate Ishaan Baisla, said “the investigation qua these accused are complete”. They added, however, that the overall investigation is still ongoing and a supplementary charge sheet may be filed soon.
The counsels also said that Katyal is currently under custody while the remaining accused have been named in the charge sheet without arrest.
ED’s charge sheet evoked a sharp response from the RJD.
“The charge sheet against the RJD leaders is vendetta politics. In states where the BJP is weak, (probe) agencies are working on strengthening it. This is politics of harassment and torture. This (the case) has been done at the behest of two people in power. They are targeting the women of the (Yadav) family... But no regime is forever. I want to tell officials of agencies as well, you have destroyed the character of your institutions,” the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha said.
The BJP dismissed the allegation about the central agencies following the party’s instructions.
“Lalu Prasad is a symbol of corruption and his family is corrupt. Lalu Prasad and his entire family have been facing ED and CBI cases since 1996. Lalu Prasad committed the fodder scam when he was the chief minister; he has been convicted in many cases. When he was the railway minister, he committed a scam by grabbing land in exchange for a job in the Railways,” state BJP chief Samrat Chaudhary said.
Lalu spent almost 42 months in jail after being convicted in various cases pertaining to the fodder scam since 1997.
ED has claimed it has found proceeds of crime worth ₹600 crore in the case. These include the bungalow in New Friends Colony in Delhi that, the federal agency says, is worth ₹150 crore.
In a statement on November 13, the federal agency said that Katyal was the director of M/s AK Infosystems Pvt. Ltd when land from one of the candidates was acquired by the said company on behalf of Lalu. It also alleged that several other lands were acquired by Katyal in the said company in return for undue favours by the former railway minister. After acquiring the lands, the shares of the said company were transferred to Lalu’s family in 2014, it said.
According to probe agencies, most of the properties were allegedly sold at throwaway prices by candidates either to Rabri Devi or Misa Bharti, and the four-storey house in New Friends Colony in Delhi, which is in Tejashwi’s possession, was sold to a company linked to the Yadav family.
