Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav has left the Enforcement Directorate office after he was questioned for eight hours in the probe agency’s money laundering probe into the alleged land-for-jobs scam. He appeared before the probe agency a day after his father and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav was questioned for nearly ten hours by the central agency in the same case.
A large number of RJD workers were present when the former deputy chief minister of Bihar out of the probe agency’s office. Mr Yadav was seen waving at them and flashing a victory sign.
? #NewsAlert | Former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav leaves the probe agency’s office after 8 hours of questioning in the land-for-job-scam case.#EDRaid #EnforcementDirectorate #TejashwiYadav pic.twitter.com/lRh1RFOGOE
— NDTV (@ndtv) January 30, 2024
He arrived at the Enforcement Directorate or ED office around 11.35 am amid heavy security deployment and a large number of RJD members and supporters who raised slogans in support of Tejashwi Yadav.
The alleged scam pertains to the period when Mr Yadav was the railway minister in the UPA-1 government. It is alleged that from 2004 to 2009, several people were appointed to Group “D” positions in various zones of the Indian Railways for which they transferred their land to the family members of the then railway minister Lalu Yadav and a linked company named AK Infosystems Private Limited as bribes.
The ED had earlier said AK Infosystems Private Limited is allegedly a “beneficiary company” in the case and its registered address in south Delhi’s New Friends Colony was being used by Tejashwi Yadav – Lalu Yadav’s son and former deputy chief minister of Bihar.
The central agency’s probe is based on a case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI alleging that Lalu Yadav, the then Railway Minister, indulged in corruption for the appointment of Group D substitutes in Indian Railways during the period 2004-2009.
Earlier, the ED conducted search operations on March 10, 2023, resulting in the seizure of cash of Rs 1 crore (approx) and valuables estimated at about Rs 1.25 crore. It also provisionally attached immovable properties worth Rs 6.02 crore on July 29, last year.