New Delhi, July 12: A Delhi court on Wednesday granted the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) time till August 8 to obtain sanction to prosecute Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and other officials in a case related to an alleged land-for-job scam. Special Judge Geetanjali Goel of Rouse Avenue Court granted time to the probe agency as it made a prayer to that effect.
The CBI had, on July 3, filed a charge sheet against Lalu Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi and their son and Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav. The central agency, through its Special Public Prosecutor D.P. Singh had apprised the court that a fresh charge sheet is filed in the case, despite a charge sheet already being filed because the alleged act is committed with a different modus operandi.
The court was also informed that sanction is awaited to proceed against Lalu Prasad and three others.
“During the period 2004-2009, Lalu Prasad Yadav had obtained pecuniary advantages in the form of transfer of landed property in the name of his family members in lieu of appointment of substitutes in Group ‘D’ posts in different Zones of Railways,” a CBI official had earlier said. The CBI had registered a case against Lalu Yadav, the then Railway Minister, his wife Rabri Devi, two daughters and 15 others, including unknown public servants and private persons. A number of residents of Patna themselves or through their family members sold and gifted their land in favour of his family members and a private company controlled by him and his family.
“No advertisement or any public notice was issued for such appointment of substitutes in Zonal Railways, yet the appointees who were residents of Patna were appointed as Substitutes in different Zonal Railways located at Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur and Hazipur.
“In continuation of this modus operandi, about 1,05,292 square feet land, immovable properties situated at Patna were acquired by Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members through five sales deeds and two gift deeds, showing the payment made to seller in cash in most of the land transfer,” the CBI had said. In its first charge sheet, the CBI said that irregular appointments had been made in the Railways in violation of the standards and guidelines established by the Indian Railways for hiring. It is alleged that the candidates gave the Yadav family members land at extremely reduced prices – up to one-fifth of the going market rates – directly or through their close relatives and family members.
The CBI had filed the charge sheet in the case on October 10, 2022, against 16 persons including Rabri Devi and daughter and sanction was then obtained to prosecute them. (IANS)
