NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today conducted raids at multiple places linked to many relatives of former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad in Delhi, NCR and Bihar as part of its probe into the land-for-jobs “scam”.
According to sources, the ED teams also raided the residences of Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and his four sisters Hema, Ragini, Misa and Chanda in Delhi. RJD leader and former MLA Abu Dojana’s house in Bihar was also raided by the agency.
They confirmed that the searches were conducted at more than 15 locations across Delhi, NCR and Bihar.
A source in the ED said the agency launched the search operation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after filing an enforcement case information report (ECIR), which is equivalent to a police FIR. The ED’s ECIR is based on a CBI FIR against Lalu.
The ED raids come days after the CBI questioned Lalu in connection with the case for nearly five hours.
The CBI had on Monday also questioned Lalu Prasad’s wife and former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi at her Patna residence for over five hours.
The CBI has already filed a chargesheet in the case against Lalu, Rabri and 14 others under charges of criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. A special court here had last month issued summons to Lalu and the other accused to appear before it on March 15.
The CBI has alleged that Lalu and some of his family members had received plots as bribe for jobs in the Railways between 2004 and 2009, when he was the Railway Minister. The agency had also carried out searches at nearly 25 locations in August last year in connection with the probe.