Daijiworld Media Network – New Delhi
New Delhi, Jan 9: A Delhi court on Friday ordered the framing of charges against RJD chief and former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, his family members and several others in the alleged land-for-job scam.
Special Judge Vishal Gogne observed that Lalu Prasad Yadav had allegedly used the railway ministry as his “personal fiefdom” to run a criminal enterprise, where public employment was purportedly used as a bargaining tool to acquire land parcels for his family, in connivance with railway officials and close aides.
While orally pronouncing the operative portion of the order, the judge said the CBI’s final report pointed to an “overarching conspiracy on the touchstone of grave suspicion.” He rejected the discharge pleas filed by the accused, including Lalu Prasad and his family members, calling them “unwarranted” and stating that the accused appeared to have been “operating as a criminal enterprise to usurp land.”
The court also took note of what it termed an “abuse of decision” by railway officials, observing that the charge sheet brought out the core elements of alleged criminality in the case.
Charges were ordered to be framed against 41 accused, while 52 others, including certain railway officials and substitutes who did not transfer land, were discharged. The court was informed earlier by the CBI that out of the 103 accused named in the charge sheet, five had died.
The matter has been posted for formal framing of charges on January 23, while a detailed order is awaited.
The CBI has filed charge sheets against Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, their son Tejashwi Yadav and others in connection with the case. The agency has alleged that during Yadav’s tenure as railway minister between 2004 and 2009, Group-D appointments in the West Central Railway zone at Jabalpur were made in exchange for land parcels transferred or gifted by job seekers to members of the RJD leader’s family or associates.
According to the CBI, the appointments were made in violation of prescribed norms and involved benami transactions, amounting to criminal conspiracy and misconduct. The accused have denied the allegations, maintaining that the case is politically motivated.