On Tuesday, the CBI conducted searches at the premises of RJD’s Sandesh MLA Kiran Devi and Rajya Sabha member Prem Chand Gupta at nine locations in multiple states in connection with the land-for-jobs scam, officials said.
The investigators searched properties linked to Kiran Devi and her husband Arun Singh in Bihar’s Arrah and Patna, and those of Gupta in Gurugram and Rewari in Haryana, Noida in UP, and Delhi, they said. CBI officers searched the MLA’s official residence at Harding Road in Patna in the morning and collected some documents, they added. The investigators also searched properties linked to her in her constituency, Sandesh in Arrah, officials said. Despite repeated attempts, she could not be reached for comment. It is alleged that during RJD supremo Lalu Prasad’s tenure as railway minister from 2004–2009, appointments were made in Central Railways in violation of norms and procedures for recruitment.
No advertisement or public notice was issued for the appointments, but some residents of Patna were appointed as substitutes in different zonal railways located in Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur, and Hazipur, it is alleged.
RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwary alleged that the BJP-led government at the Centre started “misusing” central agencies against opposition leaders soon after the defeat in Karnataka. “Shaken by the Karnataka election results, the BJP-led government has once again started misusing central investigative agencies to settle scores outside of the electoral battlefield. Today’s searches on our leaders have once again exposed the BJP as to how they are using central agencies against opposition leaders,” he said.
Leader of opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha of the BJP said, “The central probe agencies are doing their job and taking action against the corrupt. Why are they (RJD) so scared of the CBI’s action?”