The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday conducted raids at 25 different places in connection with ‘lands for job’ scam. The raids were conducted in Delhi, Haryana’s Gurugram and Bihar’s Patna, Katihar and Madhubani. Earlier Wednesday morning, CBI conducted raids at the residences of leaders of the Rashtriya Janata Dal in the case ahead of the floor test of the Nitish Kumar-led government in Bihar assembly.In Bihar, the raids were conducted at the properties linked to RJD MLC Sunil Singh and three MPs Ashfaque Karim, Faiyaz Ahmed and Subodh Roy. In Haryana, CBI raided at Whiteland Corporation Private Limited, located in Worldmark building in Sector 65 of Gurugram.
Reacting to the raids, former Chief Minister of Bihar, Rabri Devi said, “They (BJP) are scared as a new government has been formed under the leadership of Nitish Kumar. All parties are with us except BJP. We have the majority here in the state and we will not be scared, because this is not the first time that is happening.”
The RJD has questioned the timing of the raids on the day when newly formed Bihar government faces a trust vote on the floor of the Vidhan Sabha. Manoj Jha, RJD MP said the raids were done on purpose to intimidate the party’s legislators.
“It is being done intentionally. There is no meaning to it. They are doing it thinking that out of fear, MLAs will come in their favour,” said Sunil Singh, RJD MLC and Chairman of Bihar state co-operative marketing union ltd. (BISCOMAUN) whose house was raided today.
This May, the CBI had filed an FIR in the “land for railway job” case and named Lalu Yadav, his wife and daughters among several others as accused in the case. CBI conducted searches at 17 locations belonging to Lalu Yadav and his family members in Delhi and Bihar in May.
The CBI had in July arrested Bhola Yadav, who used to be the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Lalu Prasad Yadav when he was railway minister, in the alleged land-for-job case.