Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar backed Tejashwi Yadav after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) summoned the state’s deputy CM for questioning in connection with the alleged land-for-jobs scam. Kumar said that old cases have been raked up to harass opposition leaders.
The Bihar CM stated that the same thing happened in 2017 when his party Janata Dal-United (JDU) and RJD were in an alliance in the state. Kumar stated, “This happened in 2017. Then we (JDU-RJD) went our separate ways Five years went by and when we came together, raids occurred again. What can I say?”
Notably, Yadav was earlier called for questioning on March 4. However, he did not appear before the CBI officials. Due to this, the deputy CM of Bihar was again called for questioning in the case related to providing jobs in Railways in lieu of land either in their name or in the name of close relatives of RJD chief Lalu Prasad`s family. The alleged scam took place when Lalu Prasad was Railways minister between 2004 and 2009.
Yadav was asked to appear for questioning on Saturday forenoon. On March 7, Lalu Prasad was grilled by CBI for nearly six years in two sessions at his residence in Pandara Park. The probe agency had video-recorded the questioning of the RJD chief. The CBI also questioned former Bihar Chief Minister and Lalu Prasad’s wife Rabri Devi n Pandara park residence of her daughter Misa Bharti residence.
On Friday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids at the Bihar Deputy Chief Minister’s Delhi residence. Apart from Yadav’s house, the ED also carried out raids at 15 other locations in connection with the scam.
In October last year, the CBI filed a chargesheet, against former Bihar chief ministers Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rabri Devi, their daughter Misa Bharti and 13 others in the land-for-jobs scam.
