By M Alok
PATNA, JULY 27: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad’s close aide Bhola Yadav in connection with the land-for-job scam in the railways.
CBI sleuths also raided four premises — two each in Darbhanga and Patna — belonging to Yadav, who was officer on special duty (OSD) to then railway minister Prasad between 2004 and 2009.
Earlier in May this year, the CBI had conducted searches on 16 premises linked to Lalu Prasad and his family members in connection with the land-for-job scam.
An FIR was subsequently lodged in which Prasad, his wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Yadav, their daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav, besides 15 others, including unknown public servants and some aspirants, who were given jobs in exchange for land at a throwaway price.
CBI officials said Bhola Yadav’s name in the case cropped up during investigation.
The officials said Prasad, then railway minister, had between 2004 and 2009 obtained “pecuniary advantages” in the form of the transfer of landed property in the name of his family members in return for the appointment of substitutes in Group “D” post in different zones of railways located in Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur and Hajipur. “No advertisement or any public notice was issued for such appointments,” they added.
