Troubles seem to be mounting for Bihar Deputy Chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned him for questioning in the alleged land job scam.
An ED official related to the probe told The New Indian, โWe have summoned Tejashwi Yadav for questioning in connection with the case on Tuesday at our Delhi office.โ
On March 25, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the same case.
Earlier, the ED questioned Yadavโs elder sister and RJD Rajya Sabha MP Misa Bharti in connection with the case for several hours in the national capital on March 25.
The CBI had also questioned their father, former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, and their mother, former Bihar Chief minister Rabri Devi, in connection with the case.
The ED, meanwhile, had carried out searches at 24 locations linked to Lalu Prasad and his relatives in Delhi, Patna, Ranchi, Mumbai and other places on March 10 in connection with the case.
After marathon searches for over 14 hours, the ED said that it recovered unaccounted cash to the tune of โน1 crore. The central financial probe agency also recovered 1.5 kg of gold jewellery worth โน1.25 crore and several sale deeds held in the name of family members and benamidaars, indicating illegal accretion of a huge land bank, along with electronic devices.
โBased on the specific intelligence inputs, searches were conducted at 24 locations at various places in Delhi NCR, Patna, Mumbai and Ranchi in the railways land for job scam,โ the ED had said.
โSearches resulted in the recovery of unaccounted cash of โน1 crore, foreign currency including $1,900, 540 grams of gold bullion and more than 1.5 kg of gold jewellery (worth โน1.25 crore approximately),โ it had said.
โSeveral other incriminating documents, including various property documents, sale deeds, etc. held in the names of family members and benamidaars, indicating illegal accretion of a huge land bank, and electronic devices were also recovered,โ it added.
The ED also said that searches resulted in the โdetection of Proceeds of Crime amounting to approximately โน600 crores at this point in time, which are in the form of immovable properties worth โน350 crores and transactions of โน250 crores routed through various benamidaarsโ.
It further said that the probe in the money laundering case so far has revealed that several pieces of land at prominent locations in Patna and other areas were illegally acquired by the family of the then Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in lieu of jobs provided in the railways.
โThe current market value of these land parcels is more than โน200 crores. In this regard, several benamidars, shell entities and beneficial owners for these lands have been identified,โ the ED had said on March 11.
In October last year, the CBI filed a chargesheet against Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rabri Devi and Misa Bharti in connection with the land for job scam case. The agency has also named 13 more people on its charge sheet.
According to CBI sources, during the investigation carried out so far and during the agency searches in August last year, the CBI recovered over 200 sale deeds.
The CBI had also carried out searches at multiple locations in Delhi, Patna, Gopalganj, Gurugram, and others in connection with the case in May last year after registering a fresh case.
