ED Grills Tejashwi Yadav For 8 Hrs In 'Land For Jobs' Case

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday left the Enforcement Directorate headquarters here after being questioned for eight hours in connection with the alleged land for job case involving his father and former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and other family members. He reached the ED headquarters at 11 a.m. and left at around 9.10 p.m. The CBI had questioned Tejashwi Yadav in the matter on March 25, and on the same day, his sister and Rajya Sabha member Misa Bharti was questioned. In March, the ED claimed unaccounted cash of Rs 1 crore, $1,900, 540 gms gold and 1.5 kg of gold jewellery and other incriminating documents were recovered during the raids conducted at 24 locations in Delhi, Mumbai, Patna and in Ranchi based on specific intelligence inputs.

The ED had said that they detected around Rs 600 crore in "proceeds of crime" which were in the form of immovable properties of Rs 350 crore and transactions of Rs 250 Crore routed through various benamidaars. It alleged that the PMLA investigation conducted so far has revealed that several pieces of land at prominent locations in Patna and other areas were illegally acquired by the family of Lalu Prasad in lieu of jobs provided in Railways. The current market value of these land parcels is more than Rs 200 crore and several benamidars, shell entities and beneficial owners for these lands have been identified.

"A property situated at D-1088, New Friends Colony, Delhi (independent 4 storied bungalow, registered in the name of A.B. Exports Private Ltd, a company owned and controlled by Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and family) was shown to have been acquired at a value of mere Rs 4 lakh, the present market value of which is approximately Rs 150 crore," the ED claimed. An official claimed that huge amount of cash/Proceeds of Crime were infused in purchasing this property and few Mumbai-based entities, dealing in the gems and jewellery sector, were used to channel ill-gotten proceeds of crime in this regard. "The property has been though, on paper, declared as office of A.B. Exports Private Ltd and AK Infosystems Pvt Ltd, is being exclusively used as residential premises by Tejashwi Prasad. During the searches, Tejashwi Prasad was found to be staying at this house and was found to be using this house as his residential property," the ED alleged.

The ED said that their investigation has found that 4 parcels of lands acquired by the family of Lalu Yadav for just Rs 7.5 lakh from poor Group-D applicants were sold to former RJD MLA Syed Abu Dojana by Rabri Devi with huge gains at Rs 3.5 crore. It said that their investigation has further revealed that a major portion of the amount thus received, was transferred to the account of Tejashwi Prasad.