Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Gets Fresh ED Summons In Land-For-Job Case (Photo on X - (Tejashwi Yadav @yadavtejashwi)The Enforcement Directorate (ED) issued a fresh summons on Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav in a land-for-jobs money laundering case. The ED officials have also asked the deputy chief minister to appear on January 5 for interrogation, according to PTI.
Earlier, Tejashwi Yadav had skipped another summon by the central agency on December 22, and he accused the central agencies of acting under pressure from the ruling BJP at the centre.
“There is nothing new in the summons. All these agencies – ED, CBI, and I-T department – have summoned me so many times in the past and I have duly appeared every time. But now it seems to have become routine,” Tejashwi Yadav told the media.
Meanwhile, Tejashwi’s father and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has also been asked to depose on December 27 in the case at the ED headquarters in Delhi. The scam had happened during Lalu Prasad’s tenure as railway minister under Congress-led the coalition government.
It was during the 2004-2009 tenure when Lalu Yadav was the railway minister that the CBI alleged Yadav of conceding irregular appointment, putting aside the procedures and norms of recruitment in the Indian Railway. The CBI had further alleged that Lalu’s family members received land at a very discounted rate as a “substitute” for the job from the beneficiaries. The land was given by the beneficiaries either directly or through family members or relatives as per the allegations. But Yadav’s family also denied the allegations, accusing the centre of misusing the central agencies to target them.
Lalu Prasad also lashed out at the central government saying: “I have always maintained that it is not the fault of these agencies which are being made to function under so much pressure. But I must point out that a prediction I made some time ago has come true…I had said that no sooner than the assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh were over, these agencies would be back in business and train their guns on Bihar, Jharkhand, and Delhi. And you can see what is happening to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.”