Court to rule on summoning Lalu, Tejashwi in money laundering case today

Delhi's Rouse Avenue is set to pronounce an order on summoning Lalu Prasad Yadav, Tejaswi Yadav and others in connection with the land for job money laundering case at 2 pm on Saturday.

ED submitted that the co-accused Lallan Chaudhary's wife confirmed the death of her husband and it also submitted the post-mortem report. He expired in July 2024. However, the death certificate is not submitted as it has not yet been issued by the panchayat.

ED said that it will file the death certificate as and when it is issued. A total of 3 co-accused have expired. Earlier the court directed the ED to file the death certificate of a co-accused, Lallan Chaudhary, who has expired.

"Since the matter is at the stage of considering the summoning of additional accused persons, the ED is directed to file the death certificate of accused No. 10 (Lallan Chaudhary) by the next date," the court ordered on August 24.

The present supplementary complaint pertains to proposed additional accused Nos. 8 to 16 whereas accused No. 17 (Kisun Deo Rai) and 18 (Lal Babu Rai) are stated to have expired. Their death certificates have been filed with the supplementary complaint, the court said in today's order.

However, a perusal of the supplementary complaint reveals that the proposed additional accused No.10 (Lallan Chaudhary) is also known to have expired. Yet, no death certificate has been filed and only a report from the police authorities regarding the purported demise of Lallan Chaudhary has been filed, the court noted in the order.

The Rouse Avenue court on August 17 reserved order on summoning former Railway Minister and Bihar's former Deputy CM Tejaswi Yadav and others in the Land for Job Money Laundering case under PMLA. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has recently filed a supplementary charge sheet.

The ED on August 6, filed a supplementary charge sheet against Former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, former deputy CM Tejaswi Yadav and other accused in land for job scam.

This supplementary charge sheet has name of Lallan Chaudhary, Hazari Rai, Dharmender Kumar, Akhileshwar Singh, Ravinder Kumar, Late Lal Babu Rai, Sonmatia Devi, Late Kishun Dev Rai and Sanjay Rai. It also has 96 relied-upon documents.

On July 6, the Rouse Avenue court granted time and directed that ED shall file additional/ concluding charge sheet by the next date of hearing.

Joint director of Enforcement Director had also appeared pursuant to the direction of the court. He apprised the court about the status of the investigation and steps taken by the agency.

Former Bihar CM Rabri Devi, Misa Bharti and Hema along with other accused had already been charge-sheeted by the ED in this case.

ED's SPP Manish Jain along with Snehal Sharda appeared for ED before the court. Special public prosecutor (SPP) clarified that it is a supplementary charge sheet based on the evidence and material agency has till now.

Earlier, the court had directed the ED to expedite the investigation, it had directed that ED shall file additional/concluding charge sheet by the next date.

In April, the court directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to finalise the conclusion of the pending investigation in the Land for Job money laundering case within two weeks.

In this case, Bihar's former CM Rabri Devi, her daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav have been charge-sheeted along with Amit Katyal and Hridyanand Chaudhary. All accused except Amit Katyal appeared through video conferencing.

On February 28, court granted regular bail to Rabri Devi, Misa Bharti, Hema Yadav and Hridyanand Chaudhary. On January 27, the court issued summons to former Bihar CM Rabri Devi, Misa Bharti, Hema Yadav, Hridyanand Chaudhary and other accused in the Land for Job money laundering case. Amit Katyal was arrested by the ED during the investigation.

Two firms namely A K Infosystem and A B Export, have also been accused in this case. ED had submitted that in 2006-07, A K Infosystem was formed by Amit Katyal and its business was IT data analysis. No real business was done. Instead, several land parcels were bought by the company. One land parcel pertains to the main predicate offence, which is land for a job.

This company was transferred in the name of Rabri Devi and Tejaswi Yadav in 2014 for the consideration of one lakh rupees, ED submitted. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on January 9, 2024, filed a Prosecution Complaint (Charge sheet) in Land for job scam money laundering case.

ED submitted that A B Export was supposed to be in the business of export. It was incorporated in 1996. In 2007, Rs. five crore came through five companies and a property in the New Friends colony was purchased. In this case, seven land parcels are involved. Out of these, Rabri, Hema Yadav, and Misa Bharti got land parcels. Later on, they sold out their land parcels.

ED's Special Public Prosecutor had apprised the court that the Yadav family members are beneficiaries of the proceeds of crime. Katyal is said to be a close aide of former railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. The Delhi High Court had refused to quash Enforcement Directorate (ED) proceedings against Amit Katyal, who is accused of engaging in transactions with the family members of former railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.

According to the ED in March, based on the specific intelligence inputs, searches were conducted at 24 locations at various places in Delhi NCR, Patna, Mumbai and Ranchi in the Railways Land for Job Scam, which resulted in the recovery of unaccounted cash of Rs 1 crore, foreign currency including USD 1900, 540 grammes of gold bullion and more than 1.5 kg of gold jewellery (worth approximately Rs 1.25 e), as well as several other incriminating documents, including various property documents, sale deeds, etc., held in the names of family members and benamidaars, indicating illegal accretion of huge land bank and electronic devices.

Searches resulted in the detection of proceeds of crime amounting to approximately Rs 600 crore at this point in time, which are in the form of immovable properties of Rs 350 crore and transactions of Rs 250 crore routed through various benamidars, ED stated.

According to the ED PMLA investigation conducted so far, it has been revealed that several pieces of land at prominent locations in Patna and other areas were illegally acquired by the family of the then Rail Mantri, Lalu Prasad Yadav, in lieu of jobs provided by the railways.

The current market value of these land parcels is more than Rs 200 crore. In this regard, several benamidars, shell entities and beneficial owners of these lands have been identified.

Further, investigation under PMLA revealed that the property situated at New Friends Colony, Delhi (an independent 4-story bungalow, registered in the name of M/s A B Exports Private Limited, a company owned and controlled by Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and family) was shown to have been acquired at a value of mere Rs 4 Lakhs, the present market value of which is approximately Rs 150 Crore.

It is suspected that a huge amount of cash of Crime has been infused in purchasing this property and few Mumbai based entities, dealing in the gems and jewellery sector were used to channel ill-gotten proceeds of crime in this regard.

The property has been, on paper, declared as the offices of M/s A B Exports Private Limited and M/s AK Infosystems Pvt. Ltd. It is being exclusively used as residential premises by Tejasvi Prasad Yadav, son of Lalu Prasad Yadav. During the searches, Tejasvi Prasad Yadav was found to be staying at this house and was found to be using this house as his residential property.

ED investigation has found that 4 parcels of land acquired by the family of Lalu Yadav for just Rs 7.5 lakhs from poor Group-D applicants were sold to Syed Abu Dojana, Ex-RJD MLA by Mrs. Rabri Devi with huge gains of Rs 3.5 crore in a collusive deal. The ED investigation further revealed that a major portion of the amount thus received, was transferred to the account of Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.Investigations revealed that, in a similar fashion, lands were taken from several poor parents and candidates in lieu of Group D jobs in the railways.

It has been revealed during the investigation that in many railway Zones, more than 50% of recruited candidates were from Lalu Yadav families' constituencies, stated ED.