ED summons Lalu Prasad, kin for questioning in land-for-jobs case

Patna, The Enforcement Directorate has summoned RJD president and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tej Pratap Yadav for questioning in the land-for-jobs money laundering case, official sources said on Tuesday.

While Prasad, 76, has been asked to depose before the federal probe agency in Patna on Wednesday, his kin have been asked to appear on Tuesday.

The statements of the three are to be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act , the sources said.

The sources, however, said that Prasad and his family members may not appear before the agency.

Prasad and his younger son Tejashwi Yadav have been questioned by the ED in this case earlier.

Last year, the ED filed a chargesheet in the case against Prasad’s family members before a Delhi court, naming Rabri Devi and their daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav as accused apart from some others.

The probe pertains to the allegation that Prasad, during his tenure as the railway minister in the UPA-1 government at the Centre, indulged in corruption for the appointment of group D substitutes in Indian Railways during 2004-2009.

According to a Central Bureau of Investigation FIR, the candidates were told to “transfer land as a bribe” in return for jobs in the railways, the ED said in a statement earlier. The money laundering case is based on the CBI complaint.

“The family members of Lalu Prasad Rabri Devi, Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav who were made accused in the ED chargesheet, received land parcel from the family of candidates for nominal amounts.

“Hridyanand Chaudhary, another accused named in the chargesheet, is a former employee in the gaushala of Rabri Devi who had acquired property from one of the candidates and later transferred the same to Hema Yadav,” the ED has said.

Firms like A K Infosystems Private Limited and A B Exports Pvt. Ltd. were “shell” companies which received proceeds of crime for Prasad’s family members, the agency said, adding that immovable properties were acquired in the name of the said companies by “front men”.

Later, the ED claimed, shares were transferred to Prasad’s family members for nominal amounts.