PATNA: An Enforcement Directorate (ED) team interrogated ex-Biharchief minister Rabri Devi and her son Tej Pratap Yadav for over four hours on Tuesday based on what the agency said were “new inputs” in the investigation into a money laundering case linked to the land-for-jobs scam during RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad’s stint as railway minister from 2004 to 2009.
Sources said ED summoned Lalu Prasad’s wife and son to its Patna office after questioning several alleged beneficiaries of the scam over the past few days. They included people from Dhanaut in Patna, Kathari Bagh in Saran, Samastipur and Gopalganj.
Rabri Devi was asked about her alleged familiarity with some of those who got Group D railway jobs at the time. She was also quizzed about her youngest son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav’s bungalow in Delhi’s Friends Colony and her source of funds for land parcels allegedly acquired from those who were selected for employment in the railways.
Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi’s MP daughter Misa Bharti, who accompanied her mother to the ED office, said her family was cooperating with the probe. She also confirmed that her father would appear for questioning by ED on Wednesday.
“This (ED’s move) may be political because they do it whenever elections are near (Bihar goes to polls later this year),” the Patliputra MP said.
For Tej Pratap, this was his first summons by Enforcement Directorate in the case. Lalu Prasad, Tejashwi and Tej Pratap were granted bail by Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court last year in the money laundering case.
ED has already filed a chargesheet in the case, alleging that a company was incorporated to buy land parcels from jobseekers. The chargesheet names Rabri Devi, daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav, former railway employee Hridyanand Chaudhary and two firms named A K Infosystems and AB Exports Pvt Ltd.
AK Infosystems’ director Amit Katyal was arrested in the case last year on charges of conniving with Lalu Prasad to buy land parcels from prospective jobseekers in Patna and elsewhere in Bihar.
Hundreds of RJD workers gathered outside ED’s Patna office on Tuesday and shouted slogans supporting Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi.
