Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, July 28
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested Hridyanand Chaudhury, a group D employee at Railway Coaching Complex, Rajendranagar here in connection with the land for railway jobs scam.
The team also nabbed Bhola Yadav, General Secretary of RJD, who was OSD to then Railway Minister Lalu Prasad between 2004 and 2009.
At a press conference here on June 14, 2016, the then Leader of Opposition, Sushil Kumar Modi, had disclosed Hridyanand Chaudhury was appointed by Railways in exchange of 7.76 decimal of prime land at Danapur (Patna outskirts) which valued at Rs 70 lakhs. He had to pay the stamp duty of Rs 6.20 lakh too for registration of land to Ms Hema Yadav, daughter of the then Railway Minister. In the sale deed, address of the purchaser (beneficiary) was registered as 10, Circular Road, which is the official residence of Lalu’s wife and former Chief Minister Ms Rabri Devi.
Sushil Modi who was Deputy Chief Minister for about 15 years, produced the documents of registration issued by the sub-registrar here. Lallan Chaudhury, was mentioned as witness to the land transaction.
Next day, Sushil Modi held another press conference to disclose another land for railway job scam. Lallan Chaudhury, who worked in the cowshed of Lalu also gifted land to Lalu’s daughter.
Sushil Modi, in about four months between 2016 and 2017(when he was in the opposition), held 104 press conferences, all related to land for jobs, land for ministry, land for nomination as MLCs, land for RJD nominations for MPs and MLAs. He regularly substantiated his charges with authenticated documents. His only issue was corruption by the Lalu family.
He claimed Lalu is the biggest Jamindar (Landlord) of Bihar and has amassed land in different parts of Bihar, New Delhi, Ranchi, Aurangabad. He is alleged to have floated many benami companies to attract investments, one of them is LARA (Lalu, Rabri Associates) which has been claimed to have opened the largest multi-storey mall in Bihar.
According to the documents submitted by Sushil Modi, as RJD President and important partner in UPA, Lalu had asked Raghunath Jha to transfer his house at Gopalganj to his son, Tejashwi. He asked Ms Kanti Singh to give 95 decimals of prime land on NH 30 to younger son, Tejpratap. Both Jha and Singh were made union ministers only after the family received the gift in the form of land.
Sushil Modi claimed Lalu owns 175 real estates, including farm houses, petrol pumps, residential premises. He submitted documents to suggest even in the Kautilya Nagar, the residential colony of legislators and MPs, Lalu forced senior party leaders, including then Finance Minister Abdul Bari Sidiqqui and then Industries Minister Baidyanath Pandey to transfer their plots to Lalu’s daughters.
Last month, CBI had raided at 16 places, including Rabri House at Patna, Lalu’s ancestral village in Phulwariya (Gopalganj), New Delhi and filed FIRs against 15, including Lalu Yadav, his wife, two daughters in connection with the land for jobs in the railways.
Lalu had arranged jobs for the beneficiaries at Hajipur, Patna, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Mumbai and Howrah in exchange for 1,05,292 sq feet land from the grade four employees, according to the CBI.
Sushil Modi, who was contemporary to Lalu in Patna University Students Union politics had filed a case against Lalu in Patna High Court in the now infamous fodder scam and Lalu had to face imprisonment since 2013.
