‘Land-for-job’ scam: Delhi court calls joint director (ED) with case record to apprise status of Investigation

New Delhi [India], June 7 (ANI): Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court on Friday directed the Joint Director (ED) to appear with relevant case records and to apprise the status of the investigation on July 6 in the Land for Job money laundering case surrounding former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi.

The court also pulled up the ED for seeking more time to file the supplementary charge sheet.

Special CBI Judge Vishal Gogne directed the Joint Director (ED) to appear with case record and apprise the status of investigation in Land for job money laundering case.

On Friday Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s Special public prosecutor (SPP) Sought more time to file supplementary charge sheet.

Earlier, ED was directed to file a supplementary charge sheet, if any, by today.

Counsel for ED said that the investigation is ongoing.

In April, the court had directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to finalise the conclusion of pending investigation in Land for Job money laundering case within two weeks.

In this case Bihar’s former CM Rabri Devi, her daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav have been charge sheeted along with Amit Katyal and Hridyanand Chaudhary. All accused except Amit Katyal appeared through video conferencing. Katyal was exempted from appearance for today.

“It is directed that the ED shall make efforts to finalize the conclusions of any remaining investigation within two weeks,” Special Judge Gogne said in the orders of April 12.

The court noted that the principal complaint (Charge sheet) is already before the court.

Upon query by the Court the ED’s SPP Manish Jain counsel had submitted that further investigation is being conducted on a priority and expeditious basis.

This matter is at the stage of scrutiny of documents after filing of the charge sheet.

On February 28, court had granted regular bail to Rabri Devi, Misa Bharti, Hema Yadav and Hridyanand Chaudhary.

These accused were summoned by the court after taking Cognizance of charge sheet filed by Enforcement Directorate.

On January 27, the court had issued summons to former Bihar CM Rabri Devi, Misa Bharti, Hema Yadav, Hridyanand Chaudhary and other accused in Land for Job money laundering case. Amit Katyal was arrested by the ED during investigation.

Two firms namely A K Infosystem and A B Export have also been made accused in this case.

ED had submitted that in 2006-07 A K infosystem was formed by Amit Katyal and its business was IT data analysis. No real business was done. Instead, several land parcels were bought by the company. One land parcel pertains to the main predicate offence that is land for job.

This company was transferred in the name of Rabri Devi and Tejaswi Yadav in 2014 for the consideration of one lakh Rupees, ED submitted.

The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on January 9, 2024, filed a Prosecution Complaint (Charge sheet) in Land for job scam money laundering case.

ED submitted that A B Export was supposed to be in the business of export. It was incorporated in 1996. In 2007, Rs 5 crore came through five companies and a property in New Friends colony was purchased.

In this case seven land parcels are involved. Out of these Rabri, Hema Yadav, Misa Bharti got land parcels. Later on, they sold out their land parcels.

ED’s Special Public Prosecutor had apprised the court that the Yadav Family members are beneficiaries of proceeds of crime.

Katyal is said to be a close aide of former railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.

The Delhi High Court had refused to quash Enforcement Directorate (ED) proceedings against Amit Katyal, who is accused of engaging in transactions with the family members of former railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.

According to the ED in March, based on the specific intelligence inputs, searches were conducted at 24 locations at various places in Delhi NCR, Patna, Mumbai and Ranchi in the Railways Land for Job Scam, which resulted in recovery of unaccounted cash of Rs 1 Crore, foreign currency including USD 1900, 540 gms gold bullion and more than 1.5 kg of gold jewellery (worth Rs 1.25 Crores approximately), several other incriminating documents including various property documents, sale deeds etc held in the names of family members and benamidaars indicating illegal accretion of huge land bank and electronic devices.

Searches resulted in detection of Proceeds of Crime amounting to Rs 600 Crore approximately at this point of time which is in the form of immovable properties of Rs 350 Crore and transactions of Rs 250 Crore routed through various benamidaars, ED stated.

According to the ED PMLA investigation conducted so far has revealed that several pieces of land at prominent locations in Patna and other areas were illegally acquired by the family of the then Rail Mantri, Lalu Prasad Yadav in lieu of jobs provided in Railways. The current market value of these land parcels is more than Rs 200 Crore. In this regard, several benamidars, shell entities and beneficial owners for these lands have been identified.

Further, investigation under PMLA revealed that the property situated at New Friends Colony, Delhi (independent 4 storied bungalow, registered in the name of M/s A B Exports Private Limited, a company owned and controlled by Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and family) was shown to have been acquired at a value of mere Rs 4 Lakhs, the present market value of which is approximately Rs 150 Crore.

It is suspected that huge amount of cash/Proceeds of Crime has been infused in purchasing this property and few Mumbai based entities, dealing in the gems and jewellery sector were used to channel ill-gotten proceeds of crime in this regard. The property has been though, on paper declared as office of M/s A B Exports Private Limited and M/s AK Infosystems Pvt ltd, it is being exclusively used as residential premises by Tejasvi Prasad Yadav, son of Lalu Prasad Yadav. During the searches, Tejasvi Prasad Yadav was found to be staying at this house and was found to be using this house as his residential property.

ED investigation has found that 4 parcels of lands acquired by the family of Lalu Yadav in just Rs 7.5 lakhs from poor Group-D applicants were sold to Syed Abu Dojana, Ex-RJD MLA by Mrs. Rabri Devi with huge gains at Rs 3.5 vrore in a collusive deal. ED investigation further revealed that a major portion of the amount thus received, was transferred to the account of Sh. Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.

Investigations revealed that in the similar fashion, lands were taken from several poor parents and candidates in lieu of Group D jobs in the Railways.

“It has been revealed during the investigation that in many Railways Zones, more than 50 per cent of recruited candidates were from Lalu Yadav families’ constituencies,” stated ED.