NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and his father Lalu Prasad for questioning in connection with the ‘land-for-jobs’ money laundering case.
Notably, it is for the first time that Lalu Prasad will be questioned by the department while Tejashwi was also questioned earlier by the federal agency in April this year.
According to official sources, Tejashwi would have to appear before Enforcement Directorate officials on December 22, while his father has been summoned on December 27. “We will record their statements under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) with regard to the railway case,” sources said. The fresh summons to the RJD leaders came almost a month after the ED arrested Amit Katyal in connection with the same case on November 11. Sources confirmed that it was during Katyal’s questioning that the ED got some fresh leads against the father-son duo.
The case relates to alleged appointments made in the railways in return for land parcels gifted or sold to Lalu Prasad’s family when he was the railways minister between 2004 and 2009. According to the ED, from 2004 to 2009, several people were appointed to Group D positions in various zones of the Indian Railways, and in lieu, these people transferred their land to the family members of the then Railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and a linked company named A K Infosystems Private Limited in which Katyal held the post of director.
Pertinently, over the last few months, the probe agency has recorded the statements of former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, their daughters Misa Bharti (RJD MP in Rajya Sabha), Chanda Yadav and Ragini Yadav in connection with the case.