ED searches Lalu Prasad Yadav's kin

New Delhi/Patna: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted searches in multiple cities of Bihar and other locations, including premises of former chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's three daughters and RJD leaders, in connection with a money laundering investigation into the land for jobs 'scam' case. The searches are covering the premises linked to Prasad's daughters Ragini Yadav, Chanda Yadav and Hema Yadav and former RJD MLA Abu Dojana in Patna, Phulwari Sharif, Delhi-NCR, Ranchi and Mumbai, officials said.

About two dozen locations are being searched along with an escort of central security forces. A house linked to Prasad's son and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav located in south Delhi is also being covered, they said. However, it was not clear if Tejashwi Yadav was present there. RJD leader Manoj Jha alleged that the CBI and the ED were following "someone else's script" in conducting searches against opposition leaders and asserted the ED "raids" against his party leaders were a "reaction" to the change in government in Bihar in August last year.

The case pertains to people allegedly given employment in the railways in return for land parcels gifted or sold at cheap rates to the Yadav family and its associates, they said. The CBI has filed a charge sheet in the case against Prasad, his wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi and 14 others under charges of criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, and all the accused have been summoned on March 15, officials had said.

The ED case, filed under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, stems from this CBI complaint. Both Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi were questioned by the CBI in this case recently. It is alleged by the CBI that during Prasad's tenure as railway minister from 2004-09, irregular candidate appointments were made in the Central Railways, violating the norms and procedures of the Indian Railways for recruitment.

No advertisement or public notice was issued for appointment but some residents of Patna were appointed as substitutes in different zonal railways located at Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur and Hazipur, it is alleged. As a quid pro quo, the candidates, directly or through their immediate family members, allegedly sold land to the family members of Prasad at highly discounted rates, up to one-fourth to one-fifth of the prevailing market rates. Tejashwi Yadav, after the questioning of his parents by the CBI recently, has told reporters that the then railway minister Prasad had "no powers" to give employment in exchange for favours.