Land-for-job case: Delhi court grants bail to Lalu, Rabri Devi, other accused

A Delhi court on Wednesday granted bail to former union minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, and his wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, and 14 others in connection with a case related to the alleged land-for-job scam, directing all the accused to furnish ₹50,000 personal bail bond and a like amount surety.

The Court also noted that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed the chargesheet without arrest.

Earlier, the CBI in its charge sheet claimed that irregular appointments were made in the railways, violating the laid down norms and procedures of Indian Railways for recruitment. It said that candidates who got jobs as “substitutes” in the railways – either directly or through their family members and relatives – sold land to Lalu’s family members at “highly discounted rates”.

On Saturday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided 24 locations in the NCR, Bihar, and Jharkhand – linked to Lalu and his family members – when the federal agency claimed to find proceeds of crime worth ₹600 crore.

“Searches resulted in the detection of proceeds of crime amounting to ₹600 crores approximately at this point of time which is in the form of immovable properties of ₹350 crore and transactions of ₹250 crores routed through various benamidaars (front persons for benami properties),” ED said in a statement.

However, Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav dismissed ED’s claims and challenging the agency to release the seizure list. “People are saying a lot of wealth has been recovered from me, ‘thenga mila hai’. I can challenge them, issue the seizure list, or I’ll issue it,” he said.

Meanwhile last week, the central agency quizzed Rabri Devi at her Patna residence, and Lalu at his daughter Bharti’s residence. The CBI had summoned Lalu’s son Tejashwi Yadav for the third time on Tuesday, however, he failed to appear.

The alleged land-for-job scam occurred between 2004 and 2009 when Lalu Yadav was the railway minister during the Congress-led coalition regime.