Nothing new in CBI getting sanction for prosecution in 'land for jobs scam': Tejashwi Yadav

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday asserted that there was “nothing new” in the CBI’s submission before the court concerned that sanction has been obtained for prosecution in the ‘land-for-jobs scam’.

The RJD leader responded to queries from journalists here, before leaving for Delhi, where he is scheduled to attend the first meeting of the coordination committee of opposition bloc I.N.D.I.A.

“What is new? There is nothing new. They first filed a chargesheet, followed it up with a supplementary one, and it must have been the first instance of its kind in which same names have figured in both the chargesheets," said Yadav, whose own name has featured in the second chargesheet.

The ‘land-for-jobs scam’ pertains to the period when his father Lalu Prasad, the RJD president, was the railway minister in the UPA-1 government, while Yadav himself was a minor.

The father-son duo has been accusing the ruling BJP of “using” ED and CBI for political vendetta, and Yadav has often mockingly said that the central investigating agencies were welcome to set up offices at his residence.

Meanwhile, JD(U) president Rajiv Ranjan Singh ‘Lalan’, who represents Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s party in the coordination committee, is likely to give the committee meeting, scheduled on Wednesday, the slip.

Though there has been no official word on the same, sources in the JD(U) said that Lalan, who had been present at all three meetings of the coalition, held at Patna, Bengaluru and Mumbai, was suffering from a viral infection and has been advised rest.

The meeting, where preliminary discussions on seat-sharing arrangements are likely, would be held at the Delhi residence of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who has stood rock solid with the opposition camp notwithstanding the revolt in his party led by nephew Ajit Pawar, who has joined the BJP-led government in Maharashtra as Deputy CM.