PATNA: Legal troubles for RJD chief Lalu Prasad, three members of his family and 14 other people may deepen if the charges levelled against altogether 17 persons made named accused in the FIR lodged by the CBI in the land-for job-scam are proved to be true during the course of investigation.
The Economic Offences Unit of CBI in its FIR lodged at New Delhi on May 18 has stated that Lalu’s wife and former Bihar CM Rabri Devi, their two daughters- Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav were either sold or "gifted" land by the accused or their family members, who later got group- D jobs in railways, when Lalu was the union railways minister.
The FIR has also stated that few such land parcels were later acquired by a firm, M/s A K Infosystem Private Limited, of which Rabri bought major shares and became the director in the year 2014.
The FIR has stated that a total of 12 persons were appointed as "substitutes" in six different zones of railway during the period when Lalu was railways minister from 2004 to 2009 in exchange of seven instances of land transfer. According to a preliminary enquiry conducted by the CBI in the matter, no advertisement or any public notice was issued for appointment of substitutes in zonal railway yet the accused persons, who are residents of Patna, were appointed as substitutes in different zonal railway located at Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur and Hajipur.
The preliminary enquiry by the CBI sleuths has revealed that the 12 accused persons were appointed as substitutes in group- D post in lieu of transfer of land by themselves or their family in the name of family members of Lalu and a company M/s AK Infosystems Private Limited.
The CBI enquiry report has further stated that altogether 1,05,292 square feet land situated at Patna was acquired by family members of Lalu through five sale deeds and two gift deeds. Interestingly, in most of the cases of land transfer, payment to the sellers was shown to be paid in cash. The current value of above seven parcels of land, including the land acquired through gift deeds as per existing circle rate is about Rs4,39,80,650.
The CBI’s preliminary enquiry has also stated parcel of land, which was directly purchased by the family members of Lalu from the sellers were purchased at lower rates than the prevailing circle rates. It has also been claimed that prevalent market value of land was much higher than the circle rate.
The CBI has concluded in its FIR that enquiry has prima facie indicated that Lalu as railway minister, by abusing his official position, obtained pecuniary advantage in the name of his family members in the form of land in the matter of appointment of substitutes in group- D post in different zones of Railway. “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,” the FIR reads.
Apart from Lalu, Rabri and their two daughters, 10 named accused in the FIR have their permanent addresses of Rupaspur locality in Patna. These 10 persons include 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 included Abhishek Kumar of Bihta block in Patna and Hridyanand Choudhary of Itawa village in Gopalganj.
While citing an instance of how the alleged land- for job transaction occurred, the CBI stated in its preliminary enquiry report late Kishun Deo Rai transferred a parcel of land at Patna measuring 3375 square feet to Rabri Devi on sale consideration of Rs 3,75,000 in February, 2008. The CBI enquiry has claimed that three family members, namely 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 post in Central Railway, Mumbai later in the same year.
Based on the preliminary enquiry and the FIR lodged thereafter, the CBI conducted searches at 16 places in Delhi, Patna and Gopalganj on Friday.
