After the notes-for-votes scam, a land-for-jobs scandal has hit the UPA government.
TV channel tapes claim he doled out jobs for land
NEW DELHI: After the notes-for-votes scam, a land-for-jobs scandal has hit the UPA government. And it is the same TV news channel which makes the claims, this time against railway minister Lalu Prasad.
Despite several attempts by DNA to contact him, there was no response from the railway minister.
The BJP, however, demanded that the prime minister order an investigation. BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy said IBN7’s probe had exposed two scams involving Lalu — one was the land-for-jobs scam and the other was property-for-ministerial berth. “Lalu has found a novel way of using railways property for personal gain,” he alleged.
IBN7, in a programme telecast on Sunday, claimed that a year-long investigation it carried out had revealed that Lalu misused his position to help his relatives acquire land worth several lakhs from those looking for jobs in the railways.
There are allegations that even some RJD MPs, who wanted to become ministers, had to donate their lands to Lalu.
The IBN7 investigation claimed that RJD MPs Kanti Singh (Arrah) and Raghunath Jha (Bettiah) ‘gifted’ land worth Rs35 lakh and Rs9 lakh to Lalu’s sons around the time they were sworn in as ministers.
When questioned by IBN7, Kanti Singh said: “What is wrong with donating land to him [Lalu]? His sons are like my sons.” She is reported to have gifted a three-storey house and a large plot of land in Patna to Lalu’s sons. This happened in January 2005, after she was sworn in. A year later, at the time of a reshuffle, she gave away a piece of land near Patna to Rabri on lease, IBN7 claimed.
The timing of Raghunath Jha’s swearing-in is telling too; he was inducted into the cabinet after he gave a piece of land to Lalu’s son, IBN7 claimed.
Tapes with the channel show several persons claiming they sold their lands to Lalu’s relatives in exchange for jobs. One of them is identified as Vishnu. The channel says Vishnu and many of his family members are now railway employees. The sting operation footage shows Vishnu claiming he and his relatives acquired their jobs because of Lalu.
“They’ve passed orders to recruit six people. There are eight people in all. I have to wait for another 10 days… I have spoken to Bhola about it,” the footage shows Vishnu as saying. Bhola is Lalu’s personal assistant, Vishnu says.
Documents in the possession of IBN7 show that Kishundev, one of Vishnu’s relatives, sold his plot on February 5, 2008, to Lalu’s wife, Rabri Devi, for Rs4,21,000. The document, however, does not state Rabri made this payment.
Vishnu’s case is not an isolated one. Baldev Rai and many of his relatives too are railway employees. He also claims he sold his land to Lalu for a job. The channel names several others as well who claim to have sold land to Lalu’s relatives and got jobs in the railways.
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