Lalu Yadav was interrogated by the investigating agency for ten hours.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has left the Enforcement Directorate office in Patna after being interrogated for nearly 10 hours in the central agency's money laundering probe into the alleged land-for-jobs scam. The RJD patriarch was accompanied by his daughter Misa Bharti, also an accused in the case, when he entered the probe agency's office around 11.05 am.
Mr Yadav's questioning came a day after JDU President and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar set aside the grand alliance in the state, in which the RJD is the largest constituent.
Yadav's party has attacked the BJP-led central government over the questioning. RJD leader Manoj Jha said the actions of the central agencies will continue till the next general elections are over. “This is not an ED summons, but a BJP summons… This will continue till 2024, till then please don't call it ED summons… Why should we be afraid?” he said.
Misa Bharti also hit out at the Center and said the ED Enforcement Directorate's actions against her father reflect that the Central government is “afraid” of him.
The alleged scam pertains to the period when Mr Yadav was Railway Minister in the UPA-1 government. It is alleged that between 2004 and 2009, several people were appointed to Group “D” positions in various zones of the Indian Railways, for which they handed over their land to the relatives of the then Railway Minister Lalu Yadav and an associated company called AK Infosystems. Private Limited as bribes.
The Enforcement Directorate or ED had earlier said that AK Infosystems Private Limited was allegedly a 'beneficiary company' in the case and that its registered address in South Delhi's New Friends Colony was used by Tejashwi Yadav – Lalu Yadav's son and former deputy chief minister of Bihar.
The money laundering case, filed under the criminal wings of the PMLA, stems from a complaint filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which had earlier filed a chargesheet in the case. Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav were granted bail by a court in the CBI case in October last year.
Earlier this month, the ED filed its first chargesheet in the case and named Lalu Prasad Yadav's wife and former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi and their MP daughter Misa Bharti as accused. Mr Yadav's other daughter, Hema Yadav, was also named in the complaint.
Last year, as part of this investigation, the investigating agency seized assets worth over Rs six crore belonging to Rabri Devi, Misa Bharti and associated companies.
