Amid Opposition allegations of the misuse of probe agencies by the BJP-led central government, the CBI again reopened the corruption cases against former chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav on Monday. Interestingly, the significant development came nearly a year after the Central Bureau of Investigation had closed the case against Yadav and his family members after it found "no concrete evidence that could prove the allegations".
According to CBI, the 74-year-old leader had issued several key projects to Delhi Land & Finance (DLF)-- a commercial real estate developer-- when he was heading the Railway ministry in the UPA-1 government. The CBI alleged that the leader had received a property worth crores in South Delhi from DLF Group in exchange for several railway projects-- land lease projects in Mumbai's Bandra and the redevelopment of the New Delhi Railway Station.
Why Tejashwi Yadav is dragged into the corruption case?
As per the allegation levelled in 2018, the property was first bought by a DLF-funded shell company at Rs 5 crore. The probe agency alleged that the property was purchased at much lower than the then-market rate of Rs 30 crore. Later, the shell company was bought by Lalu's son Twjashwi Yadav for just Rs 4 lakh by a transfer of shares. Notably, Tejashwi is currently holding the post of Deputy Chief Minister in Bihar. Besides his son, the CBI had also named daughters Chanda Yadav and Ragini Yadav in the case.
Political turbulence in Bihar
It is expected that the latest development would create a major uproar in the land-locked state as the Opposition would further boost their claim that the BJP is using central agencies to take "political revenge". Notably, the latest development came as the state has been witnessing political turbulence following Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's resignation, after breaking the alliance with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in August this year. Later, the JD(U) leader took oath as Bihar chief minister for a record eighth time and gave Tejashwi the post of Dy CM. Since then, the saffron party has been targeting the RJD-JD(U) alliance with a series of corruption allegations.
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