PATNA: Ahead of the RJD-led grand alliance government's floor test in the state assembly, the CBI on Wednesday were conducting simultaneous raids on the premises of two RJD MPs Ashfaque Karim and Faiyaz Ahmad, and party MLC and BISCOMAUN chairman Sunil Singh.
In addition, searches were also being carried out at the residence of former RJD MLC Subodh Rai in the Vaishali district. It is also noted that several CBI teams are engaged in simultaneous raids that are being conducted on the premises of RJD leaders.
Sources said that the raids were being conducted allegedly in connection with the land-for-jobs scam in the railways when RJD chief Lalu Prasad was the then Railway Minister from 2004 to 2009. The raids are being conducted at the premises of Ahmad in Madhubani.
RJD MLC Singh said that the CBI raids were politically tested. He said that no such allegation had been levelled against him so far in this connection. CBI raids are being conducted at Singh's residence at Nutan Kanti Apartments under the Shastrinagar police station area.
Police had seized huge cash from a vehicle under the Gandhi Maidan police station area in the state capital at the time of the MLC elections and it was alleged that the cash belonged to RJD MLC.
RJD national spokesperson and MP Manoj Jha said, "CBI raids were very much predictable. The credibility of the central agencies is now very much finished and now they are functioning as organs of BJP."
"One can find a trend in CBI raids in Maharashtra, Delhi and now Bihar," he claimed, adding that Bihar, however, would give a good lesson to it.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had alerted his party ministers and MLAs about the possibility of CBI raids on the premises of party leaders during his meeting with them in the state capital late at night on Tuesday.
CBI had earlier conducted recovered documents related to the land deal during its operation in July this year.
The search operation comes on a day when Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who parted ways with the BJP to ally with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), is set to face a trust vote in the state assembly.
Sunil Singh, known to be close to Prasad, yelled from the balcony of his apartment "this is 100 per cent intentional. These people have entered my house without even informing the local police. They are asking me to sign a document".
Singh's wife screamed, "my husband is being victimised because of his loyalties. The CBI will get nothing from our place. I will sue the agency for defamation".
The CBI has named the RJD supremo, his wife Rabri Devi, and daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav, in addition to 12 people who were given jobs in Railway zones of Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur, Hajipur in 2008-09 in the case, officials said.
The central agency had registered a preliminary enquiry on September 23, 2021 related to the land-for-jobs scam in Railways.
The candidates were appointed as substitutes in group D positions within three days of applying in "undue haste" by Railway officials and were later regularised "in lieu there of the individuals themselves or their family members transferred their land," according to the agency.
The transfers were made through three sale deeds in the name of Rabri Devi and one in the name of Misa Bharti and two gift deeds in the name of Hema Yadav, the agency alleged.
The 'Mahagathbandhan', which comprises Bihar chief minister's JD(U), besides RJD, Congress, CPI(ML), CPI and CPI(M), has a combined strength of more than 160 in the 243-strong House.
RJD spokesman Shakti Singh Yadav said, "I am hardly surprised. I had, in a tweet last night itself, had spoken of ED, CBI and IT planning their next operation in Bihar."
Congress spokesperson Asit Nath Tiwari said that with a change of guard, these officials may end up being probed by the very agencies in which they are holding posts.
"Officials of these agencies should remember that neither Hitler nor Mussolini lasted in power forever," he said.
JD(U) chief spokesman and MLC Neeraj Kumar also deplored the raids as "a dangerous game of shakti parikshan (test of strength) by the central government in Bihar through CBI and ED".
Sparks are set to fly at the Bihar assembly on Wednesday when the BJP, now stripped of power and politically isolated, will try to hold its own against the mighty seven-party ruling 'Mahagathbandhan'.
The special session commenced on a stormy note on account of Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha's stout refusal to resign despite the new ruling dispensation's motion of no-confidence against him.
Sinha, a senior BJP leader, evidently enjoys the backing of his party which has vowed to take on "Paltu Kumar", a pejorative it has coined for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his many volte faces, and the new government which has been formed through "back door", a charge the party has, ironically, been facing since 2017.
"We have not taken a decision on the leader of the opposition in the assembly. That does not top the agenda. We are looking forward to exposing Paltu Kumar and this new government, formed through back door, which has brought a no-confidence motion," said Nitin Nabin, a BJP leader who lost his ministerial berth to the cataclysmic political developments in the state.
The 'Mahagathbandhan', which comprises the chief minister's JD(U), besides RJD, Congress, CPI(ML), CPI and CPI(M), has a combined strength of more than 160 in the 243-strong House.
As such, there is little to worry for the new coalition which can comfortably vote out the speaker and proceed to prove its majority on the floor.
Nonetheless, Sinha, who takes pride in having been "the first BJP leader to have become Speaker" of the state assembly, seems to have baffled his former allies by his obstinate stance.
"If he does not go on his own, he will be removed. It would have been better for him to resign honourably," said JD(U) leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, currently a minister, who preceded Sinha as the speaker.
Deputy Speaker Maheshwar Hazari too seemed confounded and when asked how would the ruling coalition stop Sinha from occupying the Chair, reacted with exasperation.
"If a rabid dog bites me, I cannot bite it back. The best I can do is to get myself treated," said Hazari.
BJP OBC Morcha national general secretary and state spokesman Nikhil Anand alleged in a statement, "Nitish Kumar is using the deputy speaker, a Dalit, to get abuses hurled at the Speaker. In the process, the CM wants Dalits to get a bad name."
(With PTI Inputs)