In a major development, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) reached the official residence of former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi on Monday and questioned her in an alleged IRCTC scam case. According to the reports, the sleuths reached the residence soon after her son and Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav left for Vidhan Sabha.
Notably, this came a week after a Delhi Court issued a summons to her husband and RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi in an IRCTC scam case. As per India TV correspondent, her younger son and Environment minister Tej Pratap Yadav had come out of the house but refrained from speaking to the media. Later, a woman advocate was seen entering the residence.
Tejashwi Yadav reacts
Speaking to media persons, Tejashwi said that the CBI has conducted a search operation after he left his house and added he came to know about the development following media reports. Further, he took a jibe at the Centre and claimed that the CBI raids a "BJP-orchestrated". "This is not new for me. After every 2-3 months, these sleuths come to my house and conduct raids. But, as of now, they did not discover a single piece of evidence," said Tejashwi."
He reiterated his earlier statement where he suggested the CBI, ED and other investigating agencies establish their offices in his residence in order to save the government money.
"Political vendetta"
Meanwhile, senior leader JD-U KC Tyagi alleged that the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party has been using the central agencies as a part of a political vendetta. He alleged that the CBI has been conducting raids as per instructions of the top BJP leaders and added similar attempts were made against Samajwadi leader late Mulayam Singh Yadav and former Delhi Dy CM Manish Sisodia. He underscored that the conviction rate of CBI is less than 1%.
What is IRCTC scam?
Earlier in 2021, 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". However, in December last year, CBI again reopened the corruption cases against the former chief minister. According to the charge sheet, the Yadav was allegedly involved in providing jobs in lieu of land when he was the railway minister.
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.
