Weeks after getting bail in a fodder scam case, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav has been booked in a fresh case by the CBI for allegedly taking land from aspirants in return for jobs in the railway.
The probe agency has started searches at 17 locations in Delhi and Bihar, officials said.
Crying foul, the RJD said that it was an attempt to muzzle a strong voice. “This is an attempt to muzzle a strong voice. CBI’s direction and actions are completely biased,” said party leader Alok Mehta.
The alleged land-for-jobs scam pertains to the period when Lalu Prasad Yadav was the railway minister in the UPA government, they said.
Last month, Yadav was granted bail by the Jharkhand High Court in the Rs 139.35-crore Doranda Treasury case related to the fodder scam.
In February this year, a CBI court in Ranchi had sentenced Yadav to five years of imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 60 lakh in the fifth fodder scam case that pertains to the illegal withdrawal of Rs 139.35 crore from the Doranda treasury.
Lalu has already been convicted in the previous four cases. He was out on bail but sent back to jail after being convicted in the fifth case. One more case — pertaining to the illegal withdrawal of money from the Bank-Bhagalpur treasury — is pending before the CBI court in Patna, Bihar.
The High Court on April 17, 2021, had granted bail to Prasad in the Dumka treasury case of the multi-crore rupees fodder scam on completion of half the sentence period, paving way for his release from jail.
On October 9, 2020, the high court had granted bail to Prasad in a fodder scam case involving the illegal withdrawal of funds from the Chaibasa treasury.
While sentencing Prasad in the Dumka case on March 24, 2018, to 14 years in jail, a special CBI court of Ranchi had also imposed a fine of Rs 60 lakh, Rs 30 lakh each under IPC sections and corruption Act.
The Rs 950-crore scam relates to the fraudulent withdrawal of public funds from government treasuries in various districts of undivided Bihar.