PATNA: Legal troubles for RJD chief Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi and their two daughters may deepen if the charges levelled against them and 14 others named in the FIR lodged by the CBI in the ‘land-for-job’ scam are proved to be true.
The Economic Offences Unit of the CBI, in its FIR lodged at New Delhi on May 18, has stated that Rabri and her daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav were either sold or “gifted” land by the other accused or their family members for Group D jobs in railways, when Lalu was the railway minister.
The FIR also states that a few such land parcels were later acquired by a firm named M/s A K Infosystem Private Limited, of which Rabri bought major shares and became its director in 2014. The FIR further states that 12 persons were appointed as “substitutes” in six different zones of railways between 2004 and 2009, when Lalu was the railway minister, in exchange of seven plots of land. According to preliminary inquiry conducted by the CBI, no advertisement or any public notice was issued for appointment of substitutes in zonal railway, yet the accused residents of Patna were appointed as substitutes in different zonal railway at Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur and Hajipur.
The preliminary inquiry also revealed that the 12 accused were appointed as substitutes in Group D post in lieu of transfer of land by themselves or their family to the family members of Lalu and M/s AK Infosystems Private Limited. It has further stated that altogether 1,05,292 square feet of land at Patna was acquired by Lalu’s family through five sale deeds and two gift deeds. Interestingly, in most of the cases, payment to the sellers was shown to be paid in cash. The current value of the seven plots, as per existing circle rate, is about Rs4,39,80,650. The land was directly purchased by the family members of Lalu at rates lower than the prevailing circle rates. The prevalent market value of the land is much higher than the circle rate, the preliminary report says.
The CBI inquiry prima facie indicates that Lalu as railway minister abused his official position to obtain pecuniary advantage in the name of his family members in the form of land in the matter of appointment of substitutes in Group D posts in different railway zones. “The persons who were appointed as substitutes were also participants to the alleged offence as they or their family members transferred their land in lieu of procuring pecuniary advantage in the form of job in railways,” a prt of the FIR reads.
Apart from Lalu, Rabri and their two daughters, 10 named accused have their permanent addresses of Rupaspur in Patna. They are Raj Kumar Singh, Mithilesh Kumar, Ajay Kumar, Sanjay Rai alias Sanjay Kumar, Dharmendra Rai alias Dhartnendra Kumar, Vikas Kumar, Pintu Kumar, Dilchand Kumar, Prem Chand Kumar and Lal Chand Kumar. Two other named accused are Abhishek Kumar of Bihta block in Patna and Hridyanand Choudhary of Itawa village in Gopalganj.
While citing an instance of how the alleged transaction occurred, the CBI states that late Kishun Deo Rai transferred 3,375 square feet of land at Patna to Rabri for Rs3,75,000 in February, 2008. The CBI report claimed that Raj Kumar Singh, Mithilesh Kumar and Ajay Kumar, son and grandsons of Kishun Deo and his wife Sonmatiya Devi, were appointed as substitutes in Group D posts in Central Railway, Mumbai later the same year.
Based on the preliminary inquiry and the FIR lodged thereafter, the CBI conducted searches at 16 places in Delhi, Patna and Gopalganj on Friday.
