ED issues fresh summons to Tejashwi in land-for-jobs case

Countrys top investigating agency the Enforcement Directorate has issued fresh summons to Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav in the railway landforjobs scam case The agency has asked Yadav to appear before it on January 5 PTI reportedHe was earlier called to appear on December 22 but the 34yearold skipped the summons He had called the ED notice a routine affair news wire PTI reportedIn the same case his father and Rashtriya Janata Dal RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has been asked to depose on December 27 at the ED headquarters in DelhiThe alleged scam pertains to the period when Prasad was the railway minister in the UPA1 governmentThere is nothing new in the summons All these agencies ED CBI and IT department have summoned me so many times in the past and I have duly appeared every time But now it seems to have become routine the RJD leader told reporters on December 21 in PatnaHe was one questioned by the ED in this case on April 11It is understood that the summons come following the questioning of an alleged close associate of the Lalu Prasad family Amit Katyal He was arrested by the ED in NovemberAlso read Landforjobs ED summons Tejashwi Yadav Lalu Yadav for questioningIt is alleged that from 2004 to 2009 several people were appointed to Group D positions in various zones of the Indian Railways in return for land they transferred to the family members of Prasad the then railway minister and a linked company named A K Infosystems Private LimitedKatyal was the director of this company when it acquired land from candidates on behalf of Lalu Prasad the ED had earlier claimed in a statementThe registered address of the company is D1088 New Friends Colony New Delhi which is the house belonging to Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members the agency had allegedSeveral other lands were also acquired by Amit Katyal in the said company in return for giving undue favours by Lalu Prasad Yadav when he was minister of railways the agency saidAfter acquiring the land it said shares of the said company were transferred to the family members of Lalu Prasad in 2014The ED case filed under the criminal sections of the PMLA stems from a complaint lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI Prasad his wife Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav were granted bail by a trial court in October after the CBI filed a chargesheet against them in this caseThe RJD is one of the INDIA bloc of parties that have joined hands to take on the BJP in the general elections of 2024According to the CBI no advertisement or public notice was issued for appointment but some residents of Patna were appointed as substitutes in different zonal railways in Mumbai Jabalpur Kolkata Jaipur and HazipurAs a quid pro quo the candidates directly or through their immediate family members allegedly sold land to Prasads family members at highly discounted rates up to onefourth to onefifth of the prevailing market rates the CBI allegedOver the last few months the ED has recorded the statements of Rabri Devi her daughters Misa Bharti RJD MP in Rajya Sabha Chanda Yadav and Ragini Yadav in this case With inputs from PTI