Railway Recruitment Scam: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested Bhola Yadav, who used to be the Officer of Special Duty (OSD) to Lalu Prasad Yadav when he was railway minister. He was arrested in the Railway recruitment scam case. Searches are underway at around four locations in Bihar; 2 in Patna and 2 in Darbhanga. Bhola Yadav was arrested from Delhi this morning.
One of the locations being searched in Patna belongs to Bhola Yadav's CA. As per sources, Yadav is said to be the kingpin of the railway recruitment scam case, that had taken place between the years 2004 and 2009.
It is alleged that prime properties in Patna were sold or gifted to the family members of the former minister in return for railway jobs to their owners and their families. On May 18, the CBI registered an FIR in this case against Lalu Yadav, Rabri Devi, Misa Bharti and others.
The CBI suspects that Yadav had played a crucial role in facilitating the jobs and later, the transfer of land to Prasad's family. Considered to be Prasad's "man Friday", Yadav had taken a plunge in electoral politics and won the Bahadurpur seat in Darbhanga in the 2015 Bihar Assembly polls on an RJD ticket. He decided to change the seat in 2020 to Hayaghat in the same district, a decision that proved to be costly as he lost the polls.
The CBI had filed the FIR on May 18 against Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi, daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav, in addition to 12 people who were given jobs in the railway zones of Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur and Hajipur, the officials said. The agency has alleged that land measuring about 1.05 lakh square feet in Patna was acquired by Prasad's family members by making payments to the sellers in cash.
"The current value of the above said seven parcels of land, including the land acquired through gift deeds, as per the existing circle rate is about Rs 4.39 crore.... Enquiry has revealed that the parcel of land, which was directly purchased by the family members of Lalu Prasad Yadav from the sellers, was purchased at lower rates than the prevailing circle rates," the FIR has alleged.
It said people were appointed in the railways without any advertisement or public notice issued for the purpose on the basis of forged documents. The agency had also carried out searches at Prasad's residence in Patna and other locations on May 20.
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