The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested Bhola Yadav, the former Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, for his alleged involvement in the land-for-job scam.
His arrest is being termed as a ‘significant’ development in the case by people who have known the Lalu family as it is likely to help the CBI in building a strong case against Lalu and his family members who have been accused in the case.
Bhola, who is also referred as the “Hanuman” of Lalu due to his decade old close ties with the former Bihar CM, has also been a RJD MLA from 2015 to 2020 from Bahadarpur, Bihar seat. He had contested the 2020 elections from Hayaghat, Darbhanga, but lost the election.
The 55-year-old Bhola Yadav was arrested by the CBI as a part of its ongoing investigation which had begun in May with the CBI registering a case against 16 named accused including Lalu who head the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), his wife and former Bihar CM Rabri Devi, his daughter and Rajya Sabha member Misa Bharti for their alleged involvement in the scam.
As per the CBI’s allegations, Lalu and the other accused, during the period between 2004-2009 when Yadav was the railway minister, had obtained pecuniary advantages in the form of transfer of properties in the name of his family members etc. in lieu of appointment in Group “D” Post in different Zones of Railways.
The CBI has further claimed that family members of those who got the said government jobs, sold and gifted their land situated at Patna in favour of the family members of Lalu Yadav and a private company controlled by Lalu’s family members.
According to the CBI of
ficials, no advertisement or any public notice was issued for such appointments that were situated across various parts of India.
The CBI’s FIR claims that in continuation of this modus operandi, about 1,05,292 square feet of land and immovable properties situated at Patna were acquired by Lalu’s family members through five sale deeds and two gift deeds, showing the payment made to the seller in cash.
In May the CBI had first conducted searches at 16 places in Delhi, Patna & District Gopalganj of Bihar.
Official sources told the Daily Guardian that Bhola Yadav has been arrested after the CBI found evidence to link him to the scam. “He was managing the transfer of land by the family members of the job seekers to the family members of Lalu . Bhola himself acquired some properties during the same period,” an official added.
Apart from Bhola, the other person accused arrested in the case on Wednesday, Hridyanand Choudhary, was appointed in the railway ministry in April 2005 and he allegedly transferred 3375 square feet of his land in Patna to Hema Yadav, another daughter of Lalu for a sale consideration of Rs 4.21 lakh. The prevailing rate of the said land, as per the CBI, was Rs 62 lakh.
The interrogation of Bhola Yadav and his ‘cooperation’, CBI believes will build a watertight case against all the accused in the case.
Incidentally, the CBI got into the picture after June 2016. The then leader of the Opposition, Sushil Kumar Modi, had disclosed, along with relevant documents, that one of the accused, Hridyananad Choudhury was appointed by Railways in exchange for land.
Modi, who is a Rajya Sabha member now and among the few senior leaders from Bihar who finds himself unutilised properly in the party’s scheme of things, in a period of about 6-8 months, between 2016 and 2017, held 104 press conferences, in which he revealed, one after another, the alleged scams related to land for jobs, land for ministry, land for nomination as MLCs, land for RJD nominations for MPs and MLAs. Most of the scams, allegedly instrumentalised by Lalu and his family members, were substantiated with authenticated documents.
