Ex-Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi met the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Patna on Tuesday after being summoned by her in connection with the IRCTC Land-for-Job scam case. The case pertains to corruption during the time when her husband Lalu Prasad Yadav was the Union Railway Minister.
Rabri Devi appeared along with the summons of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's son Tej Pratap Yadav for the first questioning in this matter. He appeared separately at the ED office and was to be questioned in the later part of the afternoon.
The case was last heard in Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court on March 11, where Tej Pratap and his sister Hema Yadav appeared. The court granted conditional bail to all accused in the case, setting a bond of Rs 50,000 each with conditions such as not tampering with evidence, not threatening witnesses, and seeking permission before leaving the country.
Rabri Devi was irked at the actions of the ED and said that the central government and the state government are deliberately harassing them, particularly before elections. She asserted her faith in the judiciary and stood firm in her position.
The ED probe is targeted at suspected corruption in the course of appointments made to railway jobs during Lalu Prasad Yadav's stint as Union Railway Minister. Railway jobs are said to have been given in return for land, with poor people allegedly being made to sell land at very low rates to get jobs.
The ED and CBI have been pushing their investigation into the case, and a few members of the Yadav family, such as Lalu Prasad, Tejashwi Yadav, and Misa Bharti, have been interrogated. The case is now a major political concern in Bihar, particularly since the central agencies continue to investigate the money trail and supposed illegal transactions.
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