Lalu Yadav‘s former land officer faces charges from the CBI for an employment fraud.
The CBI has also named two individuals in its most recent charge sheet that it submitted before a special court in Delhi who were hired by Indian Railways in exchange for bribes.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a fresh charge sheet against three persons, including Bhola Yadav, former special officer to Lalu Prasad Yadav, in connection with its probe in land-for-job scam, the agency said on Wednesday.
In addition to Yadav, the CBI has listed two more candidates in its most recent charge sheet, which was submitted to a special court in Delhi. These candidates are Ashok Kumar and Babita, who were hired by Indian railroads in exchange for payments at the time that the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chairman was the Union minister of railways.
“Today, on Wednesday, the CBI filed an additional chargesheet in the land for job scam case related to the tenure of Lalu Yadav, the former Union rail minister, against three individuals, including two candidates and the then-special officer to Lalu Yadav,” a CBI spokesman said in a statement.
“According to the CBI supplementary charge-sheet, Lalu Yadav entered into an alleged criminal conspiracy with his associates and family members and acquired land of various land owners, in which he had interest, by offering or providing group D employment in railways,” the spokesperson continued. “With intent to acquire the land parcels situated at the places where his family was already owning land parcels or the places which were already connected to him.”
The agency went on to state that “Lalu Yadav, with Bhola Yadav’s assistance, devised an indirect way wherein the candidates were engaged as substitutes and subsequently were regularized in order to implement the plan.”
The agency also stated that Lalu colluded with Central Railways personnel and others, gathering applications and supporting documentation from these applicants through his connections, and forwarding them to Central Railways for processing and employment opportunities.
Prior to this, in October 2022 and July 2023, the CBI filed two charge sheets for anomalies in other candidates’ engagements in the central and west central railways.
“Investigation in other zones of Indian Railways is continuing,” the agency stated on Wednesday.
Rabri Devi and her daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav were granted bail by a Delhi court on February 28.
The complaint alleges that the Indian Railways’ recruiting policies and processes were broken by the railways’ 2004–2009 selection of replacements for Group-D positions. The candidates are accused of selling land to Lalu Prasad’s family at a discount of up to one-fourth to one-fifth of the going rate, either directly or through members of their immediate family.
by,HHM