Lalu Prasad Yadav, the chief of Rahstriya Janata Dal (RJD) has been asked to depose at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office in New Delhi on Wednesday. His son and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav was also asked to depose at the ED office on December 22.
The Enforcement Directorate issued summons to both Lalu Prasad and Tejaswi Yadav in the land-for-job scam case on December 20th. The summoning took place after a month after the arrest of Amit Katyal, a businessman hailing from Delhi and a close aide of Tejaswi Yadav. The ED had questioned Tejashwi Yadav for about eight hours in this case on April 11.
Tejashwi’s mother, former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi, and his sisters, RJD Rajya Sabha MP Misa Bharti, Chanda Yadav and Ragini Yadav were also questioned by the ED.
The ED filed a case against Tejaswi Prasad and his family members under the Prevention of Money Laundering Case (PMLA), originating from a land-for-job case by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). According to the CBI, Tejaswi Prasad, during his tenure as the railway minister from 2004 to 2009 had gifted jobs in railway to several people exchanging with lands, gifted or sold at cheap rates, either to his family members or close associates.
Earlier this year, Prasad, his wife and former Chief Minister Rabri Devi, and their younger son Mr. Yadav were granted bail in another case related to the land-for-job scam on October 4, after the agency filed a second chargesheet in the case. In May 2022, the CBI had booked as many as 17 people in the case, including Mr. Prasad and his family members. The additional recipients in this case were also named as accused.
As the INDIA bloc parties have heightened up their efforts for sharing seats among themselves following the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the investigating agencies have been cracking down on the BJP’s political opponents.
In cases of alleged corruption, the ED has summoned the Delhi and Jharkhand chief ministers, Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren respectively.
Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi are in constant radar of the investigating agencies as well.
Under the vigilant eyes of these investigation agencies, the BJP’s opponents have met with obstacles as they are being unable to get the desired relief from the courts.
According to Mr Prasad’s lawer Prabhat Kumar, The CBI challenging Lalu’s bail in the Supreme Court is not very usual. The Jharkhand high court granted bail to Lalu in the fodder scam case in April 2022, considering that he had already completed half his sentence – a legal provision to get bail in the cases.
The High Course had granted regular bail to Lalu on health grounds, but the CBI has argued that he was in good health, playing badminton and doing normal activities.
“Conventional legal wisdom says that such a petition should have been rejected summarily. The Supreme Court has observed that it’s difficult for the CBI to keep Lalu in jail in the fodder cases any longer. But the court hasn’t rejected the CBI’s petition and has fixed another date for hearing it in January. We can’t predict the court’s final verdict unless it is delivered,” said Prabhat Kumar.