Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) President Lalu Prasad Yadav was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at its zonal office in Patna on Wednesday in the land-for-job case. The case relates to Group D appointments in the railways during 2004 to 2009, when Lalu Yadav was the railway minister.
The ED had earlier said in a statement that this money laundering case is based on a CBI complaint. According to the FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation, candidates were asked to transfer land as bribes in exchange for jobs in the railways.
The federal agency had interrogated former chief minister of Bihar Rabri Devi and her son, MLA Tej Pratap Yadav, in the same case on Tuesday.
Supporters of the former chief minister of Bihar and and party workers had gathered at the ED office in a large number much before Lalu Yadav reached there at 11 am with his daughter and MP Misa Bharti. They kept raising slogans in favour of their leader and condemning the NDA governments at the Centre as well as in the state for harassing their leader in a false case.
Lalu left the premises after spending about four hours, waving at his supporters quietly from inside his car. He did not take any questions from the journalists.
Commenting on the interrogation by the ED, Lalu Yadav’s heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav said the entire exercise is nothing but political vendetta. But it is not going to make any difference to his family. “Soon after the Delhi elections, I had said that now all Central investigative agencies and IT cells of BJP will focus on Bihar. But it is not going to make any difference. We are law-abiding citizens. Whichever agency would summon, we will go. If I was not in politics, would there be a case against me,” he asked.
RJD’s Bihar spokesperson Ejaz Ahmed said that the Central agencies have become active at the behest of the Central government to prepare ground before the elections in Bihar. These agencies are serving the political interests of the double engine government. “Such an action is being taken to divert attention from the increasing crime and other burning issues in Bihar,” he contended.
In a statement posted on the social media platform ‘X’, Lalu Yadav’s daughter Rohini Acharya said that the sole purpose of repeated interrogation in the name of investigation is to harass the RJD Supremo unnecessarily. “What is the justification behind repeated summons to Lalu ji-Rabri Devi ji and other family members for interrogation? What is there to know that the ED-CBI has not been able to know even after repeated interrogations and years of investigation,” she asked.
She also warned that if anything untoward happens to Lalu Yadav due to the government-sponsored harassment, “there will be a nationwide retaliation and the group of cowards will not be able to handle it”.