The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) summoned the deputy chief minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, on Saturday, March 11th, in an alleged land-for-job scam case. The CBI summoned Tejashwi for recording his statement regarding this alleged scam.
The summon came a day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the residences of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaders and the relatives of the former railway and Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in connection with this alleged land-for-job scam. The raid was conducted at 24 locations in multiple states.
Tejashwi, the youngest son of Lalu Prasad, was earlier summoned by the CBI on March 4th but he didn’t appear.
The central agencies alleged that several people were given employment in the Indian Railways in exchange for land parcels gifted or sold at cheap rates to the family and associates of Lalu Prasad. The CBI on October 7th, 2022, filed a chargesheet against RJD chief Lalu Prasad pertaining to this alleged scam. As per the chargesheet, the alleged scam took place between 2004 and 2009 during Lalu Prasad’s tenure as the railway minister.
Earlier, on Tuesday, March 7th, The CBI questioned Lalu Prasad for two hours regarding this alleged land-for-job scam a day after the agency recorded his wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi’s statement in connection with the alleged scam, at her residence in Patna.
The CBI summon of Tejashwi Yadav elicited flak from the ruling grand alliance (Mahagathbandhan) of Bihar. Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)] chief Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Union government has resorted to vendetta politics to harass and suppress the opposition of India misusing the power of the federal agencies.
Pointing out the alleged misuse of the central agencies, RJD chief Lalu Prasad said that his unflinching ideological war against the BJP would not buckle under pressure from the agencies.
