Land for job case: Delhi court extends ED remand of businessman Amit Katyal till Nov 22

New Delhi [India], November 16 (ANI): The Rouse Avenue Court of Delhi on Thursday extended the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) remand of businessman Amit Katyal, promoter of AK Infosystems, till November 22, 2023.

Katyal is said to be a close aide of former railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and was arrested by the probe agency in an alleged land-for-jobs scam case recently.

The Special Judge, Gitanjali Goel, after going through the submissions made during the hearing, decided to send Amit Katyal on custodial remand till November 22, 2023.

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

Appeared for accused Senior Advocate Ramesh Gupta opposed the ED’s remand plea and submitted that there is no requirement of physical interrogation of the accused, all grounds cited in ED’s remand plea are frivolous.

During the arguement, accused Amit Katyal himself submitted in the court that ‘pressure is made during remand period’.

Earlier the lawyers for Katyal submitted that the original FIR was registered on May 18, 2022 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the period of the transaction was 2004-09. The ED registered ECIR on August 16, 2022 in relation to this.

“CBI has concluded the investigation, and I am cited as a protected witness. My arrest is illegal and is contrary to Section 19,” the lawyer argued for Katyal.

According to the ED in the month of 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 the 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 crore approximately), several other incriminating documents including various property documents, sale deeds etc held in the names of family members and ‘benamidars’ indicating illegal accretion of huge land bank and electronic devices.

Searches resulted in the detection of proceeds of crime amounting to approximately Rs 600 crore 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, the 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 lYadav,ieu of jobs provided in the 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 four storeyed 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 a huge amount of cash or proceeds of crime has been infused in purchasing this property, and a 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 on paper declared as an 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 four 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, former Rashtriya Janata Dal MLA by Rabri Devi with huge gains at Rs 3.5 Crore in a collusive deal.

The ED investigation further revealed that a major portion of the amount thus received was transferred to the account of Tejashwi Prasad Yadav. Investigations revealed that in a 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.