Land-for-jobs scam case: Lalu, Tejashwi, Rabri Devi and 14 others granted bail

A Delhi court on Wednesday granted bail to Bihar’s deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, former Union railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, along with 14 other accused, in the alleged land-for-jobs scam case.

Lalu, Tejashwi, Rabri and the other 14 accused were present before the court pursuant to the October 4 summons. Special judge Geetanjali Goel granted relief to the accused.

The court had summoned all accused on October 4 taking cognizance of a fresh charge sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on July 3. This was the second charge sheet filed by the CBI naming Tejashwi.

The accused persons moved applications seeking regular bail before the court on the ground that they were “charge sheeted without arrest”.

They were granted bail on a personal bond of Rs.50,000 and a surety of like amount.

Special judge Goel had on September 22 issued summons while observing that, “the charge sheet and the documents and material on record, prima facie shows the commission of offences under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with Sections 420 (cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) IPC and Sections 8, 11, 12, 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(d) of PC Act, 1988 and other substantive offences”.

The court has now listed the matter for further hearing on October 16.

Also Read: Delhi court summons Lalu, Tejashwi and others in alleged land-for-job scam

The case pertains to Group-D appointments made in the West Central Zone of the railways based in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh from 2004 to 2009 in return for land parcels gifted or transferred by the recruits, according to officials.

The CBI had alleged that Lalu, the then Union minister during his tenure had obtained pecuniary advantages in the form of the transfer of property, where he had interest, in the name of his family members in exchange for the appointment without any advertisement or public notice for such appointments where they were engaged as substitutes and were later regularized.

In the second charge sheet filed by the agency on July 3, it informed the court that sanctions would be required to prosecute Lalu, and three railway officials Maheep Kapur, Manoj Pande, and P. L. Bankar which was obtained in September.

However, sanctions were not required to prosecute Tejashwi, who has been named as an accused in the (2nd) charge sheet, as he was not a public servant during 2004-2009. The first charge sheet in the case was filed on October 7, 2022.

In the charge sheet, the CBI has mentioned that they recovered a hard disk in searches carried out in Patna on May 20 which contained various lists mentioning details of 1,504 candidates of which 900 were found working in the railways in different zones.

It was further found that out of 900 candidates, the applications of 117 candidates were processed in files of West Central Railways (WCR) for engagement as substitutes in Group ‘D’. A total of 115 candidates were engaged of which 113 were from Bihar and 108 of those were still working.

The new charge sheet mentions new railway zones which were not mentioned before, according to the CBI.

The agency had booked Lalu and his family members in a fresh case of corruption in May last year.