CBI questions Rabri Devi over land-for-jobs scam during Lalu Yadav’s tenure as minister

Former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi is being questioned by the CBI at her home in Patna in connection with the alleged land-for-jobs scam.

The CBI officials told ANI that the CBI team had reached Rabri Devi’s residence on Monday in connection with the land for jobs case.

Rabri Devi’s statement would be recorded, and it is “not a raid or search”, CBI sources said.

CBI had booked former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members in a case of corruption in May last year. The agency had named Lalu Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi, as well as their daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav of getting land at throwaway prices in return for government jobs handed out during his tenure as Union Railway Minister from 2004 to 2009. The FIR names 12 people who allegedly got jobs in exchange for land. Mr Yadav’s aide and former Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Bhola Yadav was arrested by the CBI in the case in July last year,

Rabri Devi is being questioned a week before the Yadav family and the other accused are to appear in a Delhi court in connection with the case.

The FIR alleges that some people, despite being Patna residents, were appointed as substitutes in Group-D posts in railway zones of Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata and Jaipur.  These individuals then as a quid quo pro transferred ownership of their land to Mr Yadav’s family members and a company later taken over by the family, the CBI has alleged.

The appointments were made in violation of the stipulated norms in the Railways.