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Journalism of Courage
The land-for-jobs scam in which the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) questioned former Rabri Devi in Patna on Monday is not the only case in which the Bihar Chief Minister and her family, including her husband and former Railways Minister Lalu Prasad, are facing charges.
The central agency has already filed its chargesheet in the case and a special court has summoned the accused, including Lalu Prasad and his family and others, on March 15, according to officials.
Here are the cases, past and present, against Lalu Prasad and his family:
The CBI has alleged that as many as 12 people from Patna were appointed to Group D posts in the Railways when Prasad was the Railways Minister. In lieu of these appointments, his family got seven plots of land in the city and elsewhere for a pittance, officials have alleged. The plots belonged to the families of those 12 people.
The CBI estimates that the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief’s family acquired over 1 lakh sq ft of land for Rs 26 lakh while the circle rate at the time puts the land’s cumulative value at more than Rs 4.39 crore. Sixteen people have been accused in the FIR. They are Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi, and his daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav, besides the 12 people who got jobs in the Railway zones of Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur and Hajipur.
Lalu Prasad and his family are also facing trial in another case of alleged corruption dating back to his tenure as Railway Minister. In it, he is accused of favouring a private company in awarding operation and maintenance contracts for two IRCTC hotels in lieu of prime land in Patna. The CBI filed a charge sheet against Prasad, Rabri, and their son Tejashwi, the current Deputy CM of Bihar, in 2018.
According to the central agency, there were irregularities in tenders allotted to Sujata Hotels, a private company, for the development, maintenance, and operation of decades-old Bengal Nagpur Railway (BNR) hotels in Ranchi and Puri. The CBI has alleged that Prasad abused his position and favoured Sujata Hotel that is owned by directors Vinay and Vijay Kochhar. In return, he acquired “high-value premium land” through a benami company called Delight Marketing Company for Rs 1.5 crore. Between 2010 and 2014, the ownership of the company was allegedly handed to Rabri and Tejashwi gradually.
Last October, a court in Delhi refused to cancel the bail granted to Tejashwi Yadav on a plea by the CBI, saying it did not find any specific ground to revoke the relief. The CBI had moved the bail-cancellation application before the Special Judge at Rouse Avenue court, arguing that there was an attempt by the accused (Tejashwi) to portray the agency in a bad light by saying “it worked under the influence of political parties”.
In 1998, a disproportionate assets case was registered against Lalu. The Income-Tax department, which claimed Lalu had pocketed Rs 46 lakh from the government treasury, also named Rabri as a co-accused for abetting the crime.
The couple surrendered to a CBI court in 2000. Rabri, who was CM at the time, was granted bail. Lalu, too, was later granted bail by the Patna High Court. They were acquitted in the case in 2006.
In 1997, Lalu Prasad was charged with forgery, criminal conspiracy, and under the Prevention of Corruption Act in connection with the fodder scam. The CBI, which was probing allegations of embezzlement of government treasury funds to non-existent companies for the purchase and supply of cattle fodder in Bihar, found irregularities worth Rs 950 crore.
The case forced Lalu, then the CM, to resign. It was during this period that he disassociated himself from the Janata Dal and formed the RJD. After resigning, he installed Rabri Devi as CM. Lalu was arrested and lodged in the Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi. He was sentenced to five years in jail and disqualified as an MP.
The ED is investigating Misa Bharti and her husband Shailesh Kumar in a money laundering case. It is alleged that the couple is connected to a firm, Ms Mishail Printers and Packers Private Limited, that violated the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. In 2019, the ED filed a supplementary chargesheet against Bharti and Kumar in the case.
In July 2017, the ED had attached a Delhi farmhouse of the couple under the PMLA. The farmhouse was “held in the name of M/s Mishail Packers and Printers Private Limited”, the central probe agency said. The agency raided the farmhouse and a few other locations as part of a probe against brothers Surendra Kumar Jain and Virendra Jain, and others alleged to have laundered several crores of rupees using shell companies.
The ED alleged that the Jain brothers and the daughter and son-in-law of Lalu Prasad were the “key persons behind the laundering of Rs 1.2 crore”.
