‘Land-for-jobs’: Delhi court summons Lalu, sons in money laundering case

Special Judge Vishal Gogne of Rouse Avenue Court said: “In its prima facie view, it emerges that Lalu Yadav was in a position to facilitate public employment by virtue of his position. Various persons had parted with land parcels for Lalu’s family at cheaper rates than prevailing market rates.”

“Lalu seems to have doled out government jobs in exchange for land parcels. Tejashwi had allegedly received shares of a company AK Infosystems at a pittance. There is sufficient material on record to gather use of proceeds of crime. Similarly, the accused persons who sold their land holdings can be viewed to have consciously entered into this and generated proceeds of crime,” the judge added.

While Tej Pratap Yadav was not made an accused in the supplementary chargesheet, the court summoned him as well. “It manifestly emerges that one of the land parcels in Patna was sold by both Tej Pratap and Tejashvi to AK Infosystems. Thus, the possibility of Tej Pratap’s involvement can not be ruled out just because he didn’t receive any shareholding. It is difficult to leave out one brother over the other. Both were directors in the company. The court finds prima facie that Tej Pratap was also involved…” the court said.

In its first chargesheet, the ED had named former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi and her daughters, Rajya Sabha member Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav. Two private companies, AK Infosystems and AB Export, had been named as accused. Hridyanand Chaudhary, a former Railways employee, and Amit Katyal, director of A K Infosystems, were also named.

The ED had earlier alleged that several land parcels were acquired by Katyal, following which the shares of AK Infosystems were transferred to Lalu’s family members.

The Delhi High Court granted bail to Katyal on Tuesday.

The money laundering case stems from a complaint lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which filed a chargesheet in the case earlier. The CBI had alleged that Rabri and son Tejashwi Yadav took control of AK Infosystems in 2014 for just `1 lakh, at `10 per share when the company had owned land worth `1.77 crore. According to the CBI chargesheet, the company, in 2017, “suddenly” paid back `1.35 crore to the promoter-director at a time which coincided with an Income Tax raid on Lalu.

The CBI had earlier pointed out that most of the candidates who were selected were from a few districts in Bihar “wherein Lalu had political/ financial interest”. Of the 117 candidates that the CBI looked into, 113 were from Bihar. Of these, 108 were still working in the Indian Railways, the CBI had claimed. According to the CBI’s first chargesheet, Lalu’s family had acquired over one lakh sq ft of land for `26 lakh when the then circle rate put the cumulative value of the land at over `4.39 crore.