Land for job case: Delhi Court sends businessman Amit Katyal to ED remand till Nov 16

New Delhi [India], November 11 : The Rouse Avenue Court of Delhi on Saturday sent businessman Amit Katyal, promoter of AK Infosystems to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) remand till November 16.
The Special Judge Nyay Bindu on Saturday after going through the submissions made during the hearing, directed Amit Katyal to custodial remand till November 16, 2023.
Katyal was arrested by ED in an alleged land-for-jobs scam case. Katyal is said to be a close aide of Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav.
Recently, the Delhi High Court 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.
Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa, who represented the accused, opposed the ED's remand plea and submitted that the original FIR was registered on May 18, 2022, by CBI and the period of transaction is 2004-09.
"ED registered ECIR in August 2022, in relation to this. CBI concluded the investigation and I am cited as a protected witness. My arrest is illegal and is contrary to Section 19," Lawyer argued for Katyal.
In March this year, based on the specific intelligence inputs, ED conducted searches at 24 locations at various places in Delhi NCR, Patna, Mumbai and Ranchi in the Railways land for job scam.
ED then stated that searches 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 in time which is in the form of immovable properties of Rs 350 Crore and transactions of Rs 250 crore routed through various benamidaars, ED stated.
According to 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 in lieu 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 AB 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 in 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, on paper declared as the office of AB Exports Private Limited and 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 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 Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.
Investigations revealed that in a similar fashion, 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 per cent of recruited candidates were from Lalu Yadav families' constituencies, stated ED.