A month after the arrest of Amit Katyal, a Delhi-based businessman and close aide of Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued summons to both Mr. Yadav, and his father and Rahstriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad in the land-for-job scam case. Mr. Yadav has been asked to depose before the ED on December 22 and Mr. Prasad on December 27.
The ED, on April 11 this year had questioned Mr. Yadav for about eight hours in the case but this is the first time the probe agency has summoned his father, Mr. Prasad.
The ED had filed a case against Mr. Prasad and his other family members under the Prevention of Money Laundering Case (PMLA), which stemmed from a probe into the land-for-job case by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). According to the CBI, Mr. Prasad, when he was Railway Minister from 2004 to 2009, had given jobs to several people in Railways in lieu of lands, gifted or sold at cheap rates, either to his family members or close associates. It is alleged that Mr. Prasad’s family was given over one lakh sq. ft. of land in lieu of jobs in Railways. The then prevailing rate of the plots was around ₹4.39 crore but they were gifted to Mr. Prasad’s family members and their associates allegedly at a meagre value of ₹26 lakh.
