‘Appears Railways Ministry was being used as personal fiefdom’: Delhi court frames charges against Lalu and family

As many as 103 people had been named as accused in the case by the CBI. Of these, five have passed away. (Express Photo by Prem Nath Pandey)

A Delhi court Friday framed charges against Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo and former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife and former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi, and children Tejashwi Yadav, Tej Pratap Yadav, and Misa Bharti in the alleged land-for-jobs scam corruption case being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

“There existed an overarching conspiracy by Lalu Yadav and his family by using public employment as a bargaining chip to obtain properties,” said Special Judge Vishal Gogne of Rouse Avenue Court, while passing an order on framing of charges.

“The chargesheets strongly show that close associates of Lalu Yadav probably facilitated, as co-conspirators, the transfer of land in lieu of jobs in the railways and placements across the country,” he added.

“It appears that the Ministry of Railways was used as a personal fiefdom by Lalu Yadav,” the Judge said.

Of the remaining 98, 52 were discharged by Judge Gogne. These included all Group-D railway substitutes who hadn’t parted with their land and railway officials allegedly involved in these particular cases.

Charges were framed against the remaining accused.

The CBI’s case pertains to the alleged transfer of land at cheap rates to Lalu Yadav and his family in return for appointments made in Group-D substitute jobs in the Central Railway between 2004 and 2009. At that time, Lalu was the Railways minister.

In its chargesheet filed in the case, the CBI had claimed there were several discrepancies in documents furnished by those who were given jobs in exchange for land in this alleged scam.

The agency alleged that some candidates had sequential roll numbers on their caste and residence certificates, implying that the accused had obtained these certificates “altogether and for a common purpose”.

According to the CBI, Lalu Yadav had allegedly influenced Railway officers and got owners of the land parcels “wherein he had had interest”, and family members of owners, appointed.

The agency had also claimed Lalu and his family acquired over 1 lakh square feet of land for only Rs 26 lakh, as against the circle rate of over Rs 4.39 crore.