Land-for-job scam: Sanction to prosecute Lalu Prasad obtained, CBI tells Delhi court

The CBI informed a Delhi court on Tuesday that the requisite sanctions to prosecute former railway minister Lalu Prasad in a case related to an alleged land-for-job scam has been received from authorities concerned.

The agency told Special Judge Geetanjali Goel that the sanction with respect to the three other accused was still awaited. The judge noted the submissions and posted the matter for further hearing on September 21.

The CBI had on July 3 filed a charge sheet against the 75-year-old RJD chief and his other family members. He is out on bail in this case as well as in fodder scam cases.

“It is submitted that sanction has been received qua accused Lalu Prasad Yadav and the same has been placed on record. However, sanction in respect of three other persons i.e. Maheep Kapur, Manoj Pande and Dr P L Bankar is awaited and it is submitted that the same is likely to be received within one week. Put up for same on September 21, 2023,” the judge said on Tuesday.

Special Judge Geetanjali Goel granted the CBI time after the central probe agency made a prayer to that effect.

The July 3 charge sheet was against Lalu Prasad, his wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, and their son and the state's Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav in connection with the alleged scam.

It was the second charge sheet filed by the CBI in the case but the first in which Tejashwi Yadav has been named as an accused.

Besides the three members of the Yadav family, the federal agency also named 14 individuals and entities in the charge sheet.

The accused have been charged under Indian Penal Code sections related to criminal conspiracy, cheating and others in addition to provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The case pertains to Group-D appointments made in Western Central Zone based in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh during Lalu Prasad's tenure as the railway minister from 2004 to 2009 in return for land parcels gifted or transferred by the recruits in the name of RJD supremo's family or associates, according to officials.

The agency registered the case on May 18, 2022 against Lalu Prasad and 15 others including his wife, two daughters, and unidentified public servants and private persons.

The CBI had filed the first charge sheet in the case in October last year against Lalu Prasad, Rabri Devi and others. It related to appointments made in the Mumbai-headquartered Central Zone of the Railways.

The second charge sheet came days after over a dozen opposition parties, including Lalu Prasad's RJD, resolved to take on the BJP unitedly in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections at a crucial meeting in Patna on June 23.