The Delhi Court gives the CBI till August 8 to seek sanctions against Lalu Prasad in the “Land for Job Scam”

In a case involving an alleged land-for-job fraud, a Delhi court on Wednesday gave the CBI till August 8 to get permission to prosecute former railway minister Lalu Prasad and a few other company executives.

The CBI requested time, and Special Judge Geetanjali Goel granted it following the agency’s appeal.

On July 3, the CBI filed a charge sheet in relation to the alleged scheme against Lalu Prasad, who is still the national president of the RJD he established, his wife, the former chief minister of Bihar Rabri Devi, and their son, the state’s deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav.

 

The CBI had submitted two charge sheets in the case, but this was the first one in which Tejashwi Yadav was included as a defendant.

 

In addition to the three Yadav family members, 14 other people and organizations were identified in the charge sheet by the federal agency.

 

In addition to the terms of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the accused have also been charged under parts of the Indian Penal Code that deal with criminal conspiracy, deception, and other offenses.

 

At a pivotal conference in Patna on June 23, more than a dozen opposition parties—among them Lalu Prasad’s RJD—decided to oppose the BJP together in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Days later, the charge sheet was released.

 

According to officials, the case relates to Group-D appointments made in the Western Central Zone with a base in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, between 2004 and 2009 while Lalu Prasad served as the railway minister in exchange for recruits gifting or transferring land parcels in the name of the RJD supremo’s family or associates.

 

On May 18, 2022, the agency filed a complaint against Lalu Prasad and 15 other people, including his wife, two children, and unnamed state employees and private citizens.

 

Lalu Prasad, Rabri Devi, and other defendants were named in the CBI’s first charge sheet, which was submitted in October of last year. It had to do with appointments made in the Central Zone of the Railways, which has its headquarters in Mumbai.