The CBI has summoned Rashtriya Janata Dal principal Lalu Prasad Yadav on Tuesday to question him about the land-for-job fiddle. According to the CBI, when Lalu Prasad served as the railroads minister of Bihar from 2004 to 2009, he’d attained financial advantages in the form of transfer of land in the name of his family members in return for appointment of backups in Group “D” post in different zones of the Railroads.
A BJP leader and former minister Jibesh Kumar Mishra said, “The CBI is an independent agency and is doing its job. Allegations of political vendetta are unwarranted. Lalu Prasad and his family are reaping what he has sown (jaisi karni vaisi bharni),” as quoted by news agency PTI. In the FIR filed by the CBI, it contended that “In lieu thereof, the backups, who were residents of Patna themselves or through their family members vended and blessed their land positioned at Patna in favour of the family members of Lalu Prasad Yadav and a private company controlled by family members, which was also involved in the transfer of similar irremovable parcels in the name of family members”.
As the opposition party in Bihar, the BJP has been in a political fight with Lalu Prasad and his party in the state. “Lalu Prasad was first condemned in a fodder fiddle case in 2013, when the Congress- led UPA, of which his party was a part, ruled the Centre,” he added. Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rabri Devi, and Misa Bharti were issued proceedings by the Rouse Avenue court. Grounded on CBI’s chargesheet, the court had asked them to appear on March 15. “Many days ago CBI summoned former Bihar CM Rabri Devi and she herself decided Monday, March 6 as the date of questioning at her hearthstone. It’s not that CBI slogged in,” quoted a CBI functionary as saying.
