NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has reissued summons to Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav in connection with a land-for-jobs money laundering case on Saturday.
Yadav is slated to appear before the central agency on January 5. Earlier, Yadav was scheduled to appear before the ED on December 22.
The Deputy CM dismissed the recent summons as routine. He claimed that he had cooperated with the ED as well as other central agencies — Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Income Tax department (I-T) — illustrating a pattern of the Opposition being targetted by the Centre.
“There is nothing new in the summons. All these agencies — ED, CBI, and I-T department — have summoned me so many times in the past and I have duly appeared every time. But now it seems to have become routine,” he told the media.
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Simultaneously, former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, has also been summoned by the ED to appear on December 27. Lalu has been summoned in connection with a scam when he was the Minister of Railways. He criticised the Centre, suggesting that the agencies were being directed to intensify their actions, linking it to his earlier prediction regarding their post-election activities.
He said, “I have always maintained that it is not the fault of these agencies which are being made to function under so much pressure. I must point out that a prediction I made some time ago has come true. I had said that no sooner than the assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh were over, these agencies would be back in business and train their guns on Bihar, Jharkhand, and Delhi. You can see what is happening to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.”
The case revolves around a land-for-jobs scam that reportedly transpired between 2004 and 2009. The CBI had alleged irregular appointments in the railways, flouting established norms and procedures.
Furthermore, the central agency’s report illustrated that the ones who secured the positions received them through nepotism upon selling their land to Lalu’s family members.
However, the Yadav family has refuted these allegations, asserting that they are a result of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre’s misuse of central agencies for political gain.