Railway ministry exerted excess pressure to clear appointments of candidates who ‘gifted land to Lalu Prasad': CBI in ‘land-for-jobs' case
Officials with the Ministry of Railways exerted excessive pressure to clear the job applications of Group-D candidates who allegedly gifted land parcels to former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad and his family in exchange for railway jobs, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) claimed before a Delhi court Monday.
The CBI's case pertains to the alleged transfer of land at cheap rates to Lalu and his family in return for appointments made in Group-D substitute jobs in the Central Railway between 2004 and 2009, when Lalu was the Union railway minister. The agency has named 102 people as accused in the case which is currently at the stage of hearing arguments on charges.
'All of the applicants who applied for the jobs of substitutes (Group D railway jobs) came from the same state… How can this be?,' argued Senior Advocate and Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) D P Singh, who represented the CBI before Special Judge Vishal Gogne of Rouse Avenue Court.
'These were mostly poor people from Bihar who had land…procuring which could be of interest to Lalu and family,' he said. 'We have instances of cash payments…for these people, it was beneficial to secure a government job,' the SPP added.
'The same day, multiple applications were cleared. Look at the speed. It is such a tedious process… How did it happen so quickly,' Singh argued. 'We have approvers who tell us that the pressure (from the Ministry of Railways) was enormous… Most certificates were forged and never verified.'
According to the CBI, Lalu 'influenced two officers of Central Railway…by virtue of his position as Minister of Railways…and got appointed the owners and family members of owners of the land parcels wherein he was having interest.' The CBI had earlier alleged that land parcels in Patna were transferred to Lalu and his family either by candidates (who wanted the jobs) or their family members.
'As a quid pro quo, the candidates directly or through their relatives or family members, sold land to Lalu Prasad Yadav at highly discounted rates up to 1/4th to 1/5th of the prevailing market rates,' the CBI's chargesheet said. In total, Lalu's family acquired over 1 lakh sq ft of land for only Rs 26 lakh (as against the circle rate of over Rs 4.39 crore), the central agency alleged.
On Monday, SPP Singh argued before the court that substitutes are only hired on rare occasions. 'These substitutes are engaged only in the absence of non-regular employees…usually to fill a chain of Group D vacancies when people are on leave,' Singh said.
'There were no advertisements… No exigency was shown. No justification was given to hire substitutes. How can so many applications in bulk be decided instantly,' he said.
As per the CBI, there were glaring discrepancies in the documents supplied by those who were given the jobs in this alleged scam. For instance, some candidates had sequential roll numbers on their caste and residence certificates, implying that the accused had obtained these certificates 'altogether and for a common purpose', the CBI alleged.
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