Land for Job Scam: Delhi Court grants permission to Tejashwi Yadav to travel to Japan

New Delhi [India], October 16 (ANI): The Rouse Avenue Court of Delhi on Monday granted permission to Tejashwi Yadav to travel to Japan on an official visit.

He is an accused in the land for job scam case and had sought permission to travel from October 24 to November 1, 2023.

Special judge Geetanjali Goel granted permission for Tejashwi to travel abroad and also released his passport.

The court directed him to furnish an FDR bond of Rs 25 lakh and a travel itinerary.

In today’s hearing, the court allowed exemption from appearance of Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav for today.

The court also considered a request of the accused counsel to direct the CBI to provide the documents in a pen drive as the CD provided is not working on the laptop.

The court directed the counsel to coordinate with the investigation officer and listed the matter for November 2, for further hearing.

Earlier on October 4, the court had granted bail to former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, Rabri Devi and others in relation to a fresh Chargesheet in the alleged Land for Job Scam case.

The Court had also directed CBI to serve the fresh chargesheet copy to all accused in the case.

Earlier, the Court had taken cognizance of a Chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and issued summons against all accused.

According to the CBI, this is the second chargesheet in the Designated Court against 17 accused including the then Union Minister of Railways, his wife, son, 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

Recently, the CBI has filed a chargesheet in Land for Job alleged scam case against former Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav including Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and others.

CBI had registered a case on 18.05.2022 against the then Union Minister of Railways and others including his wife, two daughters and unknown Public servants and private persons.

It was alleged that the 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 and Bihar etc, said CBI.

During the investigation, it was found that the then Union Minister of Railways with intent to acquire the land parcels situated at the places where his family already owned land parcels or the places that were already connected to him entered into a conspiracy with associates and family members and allegedly derived a design to grab the land of various land owners by offering/providing group D employment in Railways, CBI said.

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 the accused accorded approval for the 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 in 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 and son of then Union Minister of Railways by way of transfer of shares at Rs 1 lakh only. At the time of transfer, the company allegedly owned 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 was much more.

Earlier, a chargesheet was filed on 07.10.2022 against 16 accused. The investigation is continuing, CBI informed the Court.