What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
Ahead of the crucial floor test in Bihar Assembly, multiple teams of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) carried out searches at 25 locations, including the premises of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Rajya Sabha MPs and MLCs and a mall in Gurugram allegedly owned by Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and his associates, in connection with the land-for-railway job scam, sources said.
The RJD hit back at the CBI searches saying the action of the agency is nothing new and they won’t be scared.
The Mahagatbandhan (Grand Alliance), consisting of the RJD, Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal-United (JD-U), the Congress, and others, which forged an alliance once again after a gap of five years on August 9, has to pass the floor test in Bihar Assembly on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, after the Bihar Legislative Assembly met, Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha submitted his resignation ahead of the floor test. He said that he would have resigned after the formation of the new government but he wanted to stand up to false allegations.
“I would have resigned after the formation of the new government, but someone made unrestrained allegations against me, so I wanted to make my point here,” he said.
A CBI source said the teams of the federal agency reached the premises of RJD Rajya Sabha members Ahmad Ashfaq Karim and Dr Faiyaz Ahmad, as well as the premises of party MLC Sunil Singh, who is considered close to Tejashwi Yadav.
The source said that the CBI is also carrying out searches at 25 locations in the alleged land-for-job scam in Bihar’s Patna, Katihar, and Madhubani and in Delhi and Haryana’s Gurugram.
“The CBI team is also searching a mall named Urban Cubes 71 in Gurugram’s Sector 71, which is said to be owned by Tejashwi Yadav, his family members, and associates,” the source said. However, senior officials of the CBI remained tight-lipped.
Reacting to CBI searches, former Bihar Chief Minister and RJD leader Rabri Devi, who is also the wife of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, said that CBI raids won’t scare her party.
“They’re scared. A new government has been formed under the leadership of Nitish Kumar. All parties, except BJP, are with us. We have got the majority. CBI raids are just to scare us. We won’t be scared. This isn’t happening for the first time. People of Bihar are like our family and they are watching what is happening.”
Earlier on July 27, the CBI had arrested Bhola Yadav, former Railway Minister, and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav’s former OSD Bhola Yadav and Hridyanand Choudhary, who worked as substitute employees of railways in connection with the case.
The CBI registered a case on May 18 this year against Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi, his two daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav, and unknown public servants and private persons.
The CBI official said that in the FIR, it has been said that Lalu Prasad, during the period 2004-2009, had obtained pecuniary advantages in the form of transfer of landed property in the name of his family members and others in lieu of appointment of substitutes in Group ‘D’ Post in different zones of the Railways.
It was further alleged that in lieu thereof the substitutes, who were residents of Patna, themselves or through their family members, sold and gifted their land situated at Patna in favour of the family members of a said minister and a private company controlled by his family members, which was also involved in the transfer of such immovable properties in the name of said family members, the CBI said.
In the FIR, it has been alleged that no advertisement or any public notice was issued for such appointments of substitutes in Zonal Railways, yet the appointees who were residents of Patna were appointed as substitutes in different Zonal Railways located at Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur, and Hazipur.
It was further alleged that in continuation of this modus operandi, about 1,05,292 square feet of land or immovable properties situated at Patna were acquired by family members of Lalu Prasad through five sale deeds and two gift deeds, showing the payment made to the seller in cash in most of the land transfer.
Earlier on May 20, the CBI had carried out searches at 16 locations in Bihar’s Patna, Gopalganj, and Delhi on the premises of Lalu Prasad and his family members.
