The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed 2nd chargesheet in the Designated Court at Delhi against 17 accused including then Union Minister of Railways Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife Rabir Devi, son Tejaswi Prasad Yadav, then GM of West Central Railways(WCR), then two CPOs of WCR, private persons, private company etc. in a case related to Land for Job Scam.
Name of the accused in the 2ND chargesheet :
01) Lalu Prasad Yadav, Ex-Union Minister of Railways,
02) Rabri Devi,
03) Tejashwi Prasad Yadav,
04) Maheep Kapur, Ex-GM of West Central Railway (WCR),
05) Manoj Pande, Ex-CPO of WCR,
06) Dr. P. L. Bankar, Ex-CPO of WCR
07) Dil Chand Kumar,
08) Gyan Chand Rai,
09) Hazari Rai,
10) M/s A. K Infosystems Pvt Ltd,
11) Mahesh Singh,
12) Mohd. Dhanif Ansari,
13) Shatrudhan Rai,
14) Vishwakarma Rai,
15) Ashok Kumar Yadav,
16) Ram Briksh Yadav and
17) Rajnath Singh.
The CBI had registered a case on 18.05.2022 against then Union Minister of Railways and 15 others including his wife, 02 daughters & unknown Public servants & Private persons.
It was alleged that then Union Minister of Railways during the period 2004-2009 had obtained pecuniary advantages in the form of transfer of landed property in the name of his family members etc. in lieu of appointment of Substitutes in Group “D” Post in different Zones of Railways. It was further alleged that in lieu thereof the substitutes, who were residents of Patna themselves or through their family members sold & gifted their land situated at Patna in favour of the family members of said Minister and a private company controlled by his family members, which was also involved in transfer of such immovable properties in the name of said family members. It was also alleged that no advertisement or any public notice was issued for such appointments of substitutes in Zonal Railways, yet the appointees who were residents of Patna were appointed as Substitutes in different Zonal Railways located at Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur and Hazipur.
Searches were earlier conducted at multiple places including in Delhi & Bihar etc.
During investigation, it was found that then Union Minister of Railways with intent to acquire the land parcels situated at the places where his family was already owning land parcels or the places which were already connected to him entered into conspiracy with associates & family members and allegedly derived a design to grab the land of various land owners by offering / providing group D employment in Railways.
The accused had allegedly collected applications and documents of such candidates through associates and then sent those to West Central Railway for processing and providing jobs in Railways and the General Managers of West Central Railways under the influence /control of accused accorded approval for engagement of candidates.
For providing jobs in Railways, they allegedly devised an indirect way wherein the candidates were engaged firstly as Substitutes and subsequently, were regularized. A hard disk containing lists of candidates (who were engaged) was also recovered during searches. It was further alleged that a land parcel was purchased in the name of a private company at Rs.10.83 Lakh during 2007 and subsequently, the said land along with some other land parcels purchased by the said company, were brought into the ownership / control of his wife & son of then Union Minister of Railways by way of transfer of shares at Rs.One Lakh only. At the time of transfer, the company was allegedly owning land parcels purchased at a total cost of Rs1.77 crore(approx) and it was transferred for a mere Rs.1 Lakh(approx) only, however, the market value of the lands were much more.
Earlier, a chargesheet was filed on 07.10.2022 against 16 accused.
Investigation is continuing.
The public is reminded that the above findings are based on the investigation done by CBI and evidence collected by it. Under the Indian Law, the accused are presumed to be innocent till their guilt is finally established after a fair trial.
