Attempt to finish off Opposition: Senior RJD leader Alok Mehta on fresh case against Lalu Yadav

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The CBI has registered a fresh case against former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav on the charge of taking land from aspirants in return for jobs in the railway, officials said on Friday. The probe agency had started searches at 17 locations in Delhi and Bihar, they said. The alleged land-for-jobs scam pertains to the period when Lalu Prasad Yadav was the railway minister in the UPA government, officials said. Reacting to this, senior RJD leader Alok Mehta alleged, "This is an attempt to finish off the Opposition. There is no basis for these cases. This is an attempt to silence criticism."

Another senior party leader Shivanand Tiwary said, "The BJP is getting uneasy about Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav coming together on the demand for a case Census. The timing of these raids points to this. Otherwise, why has the CBI suddenly taken up this case at a time when Nitish Kumar is set to call an all-party meeting on the demand for caste Census,".

Meanwhile, BJP leader Sushil Modi called Yadav and his family ‘a symbol of corruption in Bihar’. "The modus operandi was that you give me land and in return, I will give a Group D job in the Railways. Here, the land was first granted in someone else's name and after 5-6 years it was gifted to Yadav and his family (by the said group-D employee)," Modi said.