Court reserves order on summoning Lalu, Tejaswi Yadav in land for job PMLA case

New Delhi [India], August 17 : The Rouse Avenue court on Saturday reserved an order on summoning former Railway Minister and former Bihar Deputy CM Tejaswi Yadav and others in land for a job money laundering case under PMLA. The court is to pronounce the order on August 24.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has recently filed a supplementary charge sheet.
Special judge Vishal Gogne after considering the supplementary charge sheet and submissions of ED's counsel reserved the order on summoning Lalu Prasad Yadav, Tejaswi Yadav, and nine other charge-sheeted accused.
The ED on August 6, filed an Ist supplementary charge sheet against Former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, former deputy CM Tejaswi Yadav, and other accused.
This supplementary charge sheet has the names of Lallan Chaudhary, Hazari Rai, Dharmender Kumar, Akhileshwar Singh, Ravinder Kumar, Late Lal Babu Rai, Sonmatia Devi, Late Kishun Dev Rai and Sanjay Rai.
It also has 96 relied-upon documents.
On July 6, the Rouse Avenue court granted time and directed that ED shall file an additional/ concluding charge sheet by the next date of hearing.
The joint director of Enforcement Director had also appeared under the direction of the court. He apprised the court about the status of the investigation and steps taken by the agency.
Former Bihar CM Rabri Devi, Misa Bharti, and Hema along with other accused had already been charge-sheeted by the ED in this case.
ED's SPP Manish Jain along with Snehal Sharda appeared for ED before the court.
The special public prosecutor (SPP) clarified that it is a supplementary charge sheet based on the evidence and material the agency has till now.
Earlier, the court had directed the ED to expedite the investigation, it had directed that ED shall file an additional/concluding charge sheet by the next date.
In April,.the court had directed the ED to finalise the conclusion of the pending investigation in the Land for Job money laundering case within two weeks.
In this case, Bihar's former CM Rabri Devi, and her daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav have been charge-sheeted along with Amit Katyal and Hridyanand Chaudhary. All accused except Amit Katyal appeared through video conferencing.
On February 28, the court granted regular bail to Rabri Devi, Misa Bharti, Hema Yadav, and Hridyanand Chaudhary.
On January 27, the court issued summons to former Bihar CM Rabri Devi, Misa Bharti, Hema Yadav, Hridyanand Chaudhary and other accused in the Land for Job money laundering case. Amit Katyal was arrested by the ED during the investigation.
Two firms namely A K Infosystem and A B Export have also been accused in this case.
ED had submitted that in 2006-07, AK info system was formed by Amit Katyal and its business was IT data analysis. No real business was done. Instead, several land parcels were bought by the company. One land parcel pertains to the main predicate offence which is land for a job.
This company was transferred in the name of Rabri Devi and Tejaswi Yadav in 2014 for the consideration of one lakh Rupees, ED submitted.
The ED on January 9, 2024, filed a Prosecution Complaint (Charge sheet) in Land for a job scam money laundering case.
ED submitted that A B Export was supposed to be in the business of export. It was incorporated in 1996. In 2007, Rs. five crore came through five companies and a property in New Friends colony was purchased.
In this case, seven land parcels are involved. Out of these Rabri, Hema Yadav, and Misa Bharti got land parcels. Later on, They sold out their land parcels.
ED's Special Public Prosecutor had apprised the court that the Yadav Family members are beneficiaries of proceeds of crime.
Katyal is said to be a close aide of former railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.
The Delhi High Court had refused to quash Enforcement Directorate (ED) proceedings against Amit Katyal, who is accused of engaging in transactions with the family members of former railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.
According to the ED in March month, based on the specific intelligence inputs, searches were conducted at 24 locations at various places in Delhi NCR, Patna, Mumbai and Ranchi in the Railways Land for Job Scam, which resulted in the recovery of unaccounted cash of Rs 1 Crore, foreign currency including USD 1900, 540 gms gold bullion and more than 1.5 kg of gold jewellery (worth Rs 1.25 Crores approximately), several other incriminating documents including various property documents, sale deeds etc held in the names of family members and benamidaars indicating illegal accretion of huge land bank and electronic devices.
Searches resulted in the detection of Proceeds of Crime amounting to Rs 600 Crore approximately at this point which is in the form of immovable properties of Rs 350 Crore and transactions of Rs 250 Crore routed through various benamidars, ED stated.
The ED 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 the then Rail Mantri, Lalu Prasad Yadav instead of jobs provided in Railways. The current market value of these land parcels is more than Rs 200 Crore. In this regard, several benamidars, shell entities and beneficial owners for these lands have been identified.
Further, investigation under PMLA revealed that the property situated at New Friends Colony, Delhi (independent 4-storied bungalow, registered in the name of M/s A B Exports Private Limited, a company owned and controlled by Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and family) was shown to have been acquired at a value of mere Rs 4 Lakhs, the present market value of which is approximately Rs 150 Crore. It is suspected that a huge amount of cash/Proceeds of Crime has been infused into purchasing this property and a 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 the office of M/s A B Exports Private Limited and M/s AK Infosystems Pvt ltd, it is being exclusively used as residential premises by Tejasvi Prasad Yadav, son of Lalu Prasad Yadav. During the searches, Tejasvi Prasad Yadav was found to be staying at this house and was found to be using this house as his residential property.
ED investigation has found that 4 parcels of lands acquired by the family of Lalu Yadav in just Rs 7.5 Lakhs from poor Group-D applicants were sold to Syed Abu Dojana, Ex-RJD MLA by Mrs. Rabri Devi with huge gains at Rs 3.5 Crore in a collusive deal. ED investigation further revealed that a major portion of the amount thus received was transferred to the account of Sh. Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.Investigations revealed that similarly, lands were taken from several poor parents and candidates in lieu of Group D jobs in the Railways. It has been revealed during the investigation that in many Railways Zones, more than 50 percent of recruited candidates were from Lalu Yadav families' constituencies, stated ED.